Looking at the “Numbers”

A few weeks back I asked all of you to get to “Know Your Numbers”.     I asked you to count the number of women sitting in key roles versus the total number of key roles in your organization.

My primary intention was to make you aware of the number of women leading your company.   I suspect there are many of you that came out of that exercise with some decent percentages of women in the lower and middle levels of management. It is likely that as you went higher in the ranks you found fewer women holding key roles.   Sadly, many of you probably found no women in Executive level leadership in your firm.

So what is so important about being aware of these Numbers?

During this Women’s History month we have been bombarded with all of the statistics around women’s rights and gender equality. Social media, broadcast media and just about every publication I came across has had something in it about Women’s rights and gender equality.  My daughter, who has a degree in Strategic Communications and tutors me weekly on social media,  refers to this as “trending”.    Companies that want to leverage the trend are starting to say the right things to their employees and more often, to the press.   Some companies are truly embracing gender equality and have made public commitments to improve the balance between men and women within their organizations.  Others are just talking about it.

If you are lucky the Numbers you pulled together have shown you that your company had already embraced gender equality.   For those of you who found a less impressive percentage of women in key roles, these Numbers will give you a baseline from which you can now measure your firm’s commitment to gender equality going forward.   They will help you see if your senior leadership has fully embraced Gender Equality or if they are just following the trend.   The Numbers will warn you about a glass ceiling and tell you whether it has been cracked or fully shattered.    If you are a woman with a desire to succeed and ascend within your organization these Numbers should be just as important to you as the financial results for your firm.

Pay attention to these Numbers when you look at the personnel announcements during the year. Are women getting promoted as often or as quickly as the men are? How many new Directors and Managing Directors are women?  How many women are in commercial versus operational/infrastructure roles? Are more women leaving the firm than men? What is the ratio of women to men when it comes to headcount reduction?  The answers to these questions are meaningful.

The Numbers above you are those you are most likely to focus on,   After all, they are telling you what the terrain ahead of you looks like. But you cannot just look up. You need to look down too.   It is important that you encourage younger women to participate in your industry or firm.   Make sure the women walking in the door understand that these Numbers are important. Teach them what the Numbers mean. Show them that women supporting women is something that is important on your “Floor” and can improve the Numbers.   Mentor them on how to be successful in your environment.    Create an entire wave of women to obliterate that glass ceiling. Stand together with them to challenge your leadership when the Numbers don’t look right.   Generate some #HeelPower