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2 First published 2011 by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business 2011 Averil Leimon, François Moscovici and Helen Goodier Typeset in New Century Schoolbook by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Paperback cover design by Lisa Dynan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict environmental standards and with pulp derived from sustainable forests. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leimon, Averil. Coaching women to lead / Averil Leimon, François Moscovici, and Helen Goodier. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN (hardback) ISBN (pbk.) 1. Leadership in women. 2. Executive coaching. 3. Mentoring in business. I. Moscovici, François. II. Goodier, Helen, 1958 III. Title. BF637.L4L dc ISBN: (hbk) ISBN: (pbk)

3 Contents List of figures and tables Preface ix xi 1 Why women? The need to differentiate in coaching 1 2 Why bother with women leaders? The business case for coaching 8 3 What are the critical stages of a woman s career and their coaching requirements? 24 4 What do women want? Reporting the results of our research 40 5 In search of role models conversations with exemplary women 57 6 Coaching women to lead a systematic approach to coaching women for success What makes a strong leader? A model for women s leadership development How to develop a woman-friendly organisation What is the global picture? Lessons from coaching women to lead around the world 180

4 viii CONTENTS 10 Conclusions 200 Appendix Appendix Bibliography 219 Index 225

5 1 Why women? The need to differentiate in coaching The two cult 1980s American TV series Dallas and Dynasty neatly bookend the Reagan years. Women with impossibly large shoulder pads were taking corporate men at their own game and heralded a boardroom revolution which was echoed in politics from the world s most famous handbag to the fall of the most infamous wall. At the time, one of us was studying cross-cultural management at McGill University and remembers that there were then broadly two avenues when looking at the role of women in the corporate world: the American approach was to ignore the fact that people had a gender, treat everybody equally and fairly, by the same rules i.e. those put in place by men over the past 100 years of corporate life; and the European one which taught women to recognise and build on their differences, sometimes using unique skills, sometimes exploiting men s stereotypes of working women. This may today seem like a crude caricature, but we have all fallen into the same trap as far as coaching is concerned: initially we thought that coaching of women in business had to be gender neutral at the risk of diminishing its focus and its effectiveness. However, the more we coached senior women, the more we realised that the same specific themes kept coming back. There was definitely something worth investigating. At the same time, we looked at the proportion of women in senior roles and were appalled at the sheer waste of talent in the workplace. So we embarked

6 2 LEIMON, MOSCOVICI AND GOODIER on a research programme trying to answer three specific questions: Are there objective reasons to treat women differently in coaching? What should women be coached about and at what stage of their career? Are there any techniques and approaches that work particularly well when coaching women? We attempted to answer these questions in the specific context of a corporate environment and in coaching women to have a career progression that allowed them to express their full potential i.e. get to leadership positions comparable to that of equally qualified men. We took three approaches: We built a robust business case to demonstrate that coaching women to lead is clearly worth the effort. We did the obvious to find out about needs: we asked women! We also trawled the world for examples of gender-specific coaching, looked at our own practice and asked coached women what had been the most useful in their own coaching. This book is the result of this research. We start from the general (is it worth it?) to the specific (tools and techniques). It is organised as follows: Chapter 2: Why bother with women leaders? The business case for coaching The corporate world likes nothing better than a solid business case. Although one could make a moral case for some form of affirmative action to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions, it is not nearly as strong as pounds and pence (or your preferred currency). If coaching is effective at increasing the number of successful women leaders, then is it worth the time and cost? In this chapter you will learn:

7 WHY WOMEN? 3 why most economies East and West face a leadership cliff and how women could help make up this leadership deficit; the cash benefits of gender diversity; and how to calculate the value of actively managing the pipeline of women leaders to increase talent retention and save recruitment and associated costs. By the end of this chapter you should be able to draw up a solid set of arguments for your own business environment and articulate how an investment in coaching can play a role not only in promoting existing women to leadership positions but also in attracting both new and returning women to your organisation. Chapter 3: What are the critical stages of a woman s career and their coaching requirements? All managers have important career stages that require specific coaching interventions: the first big promotion into a visible leadership role and mid-career relaunch are quasi-universal experiences. Women have additional specific coaching needs linked to the child-bearing years (a.k.a. offramping/on-ramping for our US colleagues) and gaining boardroom access. In this chapter we look at a typical corporate career and analyse key career stages and associated coaching interventions. By the end of this chapter emerging women leaders should have a good sense of the successive decisions they have to consider when planning their career (managing the so-called glass labyrinth) and how coaching can help in each case. Coaches will find it easier to plan their interventions using this chapter as a roadmap. Business managers will have a deeper understanding of the key stages at which they lose female staff and what they can do about them. Chapter 4: What do women want? Reporting the results of our research This is the chapter that analyses research commissioned specifically for this book. We have developed and conducted

8 4 LEIMON, MOSCOVICI AND GOODIER a questionnaire in association with the London School of Economics and present statistically significant results as well as many quotes and words of advice from respondents. In this chapter you will find: the perceived key drivers of success for women in a corporate environment; the biggest challenges at all levels; advice given to other women in a corporate context in all areas including confidence, gender behaviour, career strategies, emotional advice, etc.; coaching implications. Chapter 5: In search of role models conversations with exemplary women We have carried out 25 in-depth interviews of women in senior positions who, by any standard, have made it. They share their story and dispense advice liberally. Our aim here was to identify and distil the wisdom of genuine role models not merely women who were successful by playing by the men s rules. We provide the transcripts of 14 conversations with senior women with minimum interference: the feedback from our previous book using this format was that readers really enjoyed the immediacy of the conversations and could better relate to the situations than if they had been summarised and sanitised. Anecdotes range from defining moments in their careers to reflecting on lessons for today s young managers. They also describe what type of coaching they received along the way (if any), how it helped them; and they express views on the best timing for coaching. Chapter 6: Coaching women to lead a systematic approach to coaching women for success For coaches this is the key chapter of the book: we draw from the knowledge of all that precedes, and add our own experience in cognitive behavioural coaching at a senior level to reveal key interventions. In each section you will find a

9 WHY WOMEN? 5 summary of the issue, the psychological underpinnings where relevant, several coaching exercises and an illustrative case study. The themes covered are: confidence networking role models balancing career and family resilience navigating the labyrinth playing the game developing presence developing into a leader. Chapter 7: What makes a strong leader? A model for women s leadership development If women require specific coaching interventions they also require excellent general leadership coaching. In this chapter we re-examine what makes a good leader. We expand on our ITEA model first presented in Essential Business Coaching and enrich it with recent research that looks at eight long-term characteristics for emerging and confirmed leaders. We call our new model the Balanced Leader and for each characteristic we point out any gender-specific issue and the coaching approach to deal with it. This can be seen as a long-term road map for all leaders to follow. According to our research, Balanced Leaders are: visible resilient strategic emotional decisive intellectual behavioural meaningful.

10 6 LEIMON, MOSCOVICI AND GOODIER Chapter 8: How to develop a woman-friendly organisation What should be clear by now is that women-friendly organisations are more likely to attract and retain good quality women managers as well as enable them to progress to very senior levels including the boardroom; and that there is a business case for creating such organisations. This chapter feeds from our existing expertise in designing diversityfriendly environments as well as from the specific recommendations collected in our survey and our interviews. It makes the distinction between the organisations that pile policy upon policy and those that have the courage to start again from scratch. We make our recommendations in the context of historical achievements as well as recent research by leading think tanks. Finally, we consider what women can do for themselves while (not) waiting for the perfect organisation to emerge. Chapter 9: What is the global picture? Lessons from coaching women to lead around the world If the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, could we learn something from how women are coached to lead in other countries? Also, when we are coaching women from different backgrounds and cultures, should we pay specific attention to aspects of their culture and perspective on leadership? This chapter takes us on a three-country trip and then back to the UK: we examine the social background as well as coaching practices in the USA, Norway and the Middle East and draw comparisons with the UK. We highlight differences in the context of the universal experiences that women go through on their way to the top. Chapter 10: Conclusions We started off with a potentially controversial question: Do we need to consider specific and different coaching for women? You can go straight to this chapter and find out the answer, or enjoy the journey and read the book first!

11 WHY WOMEN? 7 We summarise our findings about when and how to coach, and the skills that leadership coaches working with women should acquire. We also consider what else women need to flourish in a corporate environment, and what benefits employers can expect when they reach the tipping point in terms of grooming women leaders in the right quantity and quality. We also look at the role that men have to play in making it all happen. Our conclusions extend beyond coaching, looking at organisation design and the bigger picture of Talent Management. Finally we suggest new areas for research and practice. Show me... This book aims to debunk many myths about women and leadership; it is largely about showing through commissioned and external research why and how coaching can have a huge impact. So we shall start with the obvious in the next chapter: Show me the money...