Women and Coaching

Over the last 20 years, the percentage of women on boards has increased to around a third in FTSE 100 companies, and over 20% in the FTSE 250. But this masks the fact that most of the women are non-executives, and many female NEDs sit on more than one board. Female executive positions on FTSE 100 boards are still below 10%, and on FTSE 250 boards the proportion is not much more than 6%. Does this matter?

Yes it does. Inviting female executives into the boardroom is not just the right thing to do: it makes clear financial sense. McKinsey’s 2018 report “Delivering through diversity” highlighted that large companies in the top quartile for executive gender diversity were 21% more likely to have above average profitability than companies in the bottom quartile. It stands to reason that companies should want to access all of the talent pool, rather than just 50% of it. There is also ample evidence that a diverse board reduces the risk of group think. In an increasingly challenging environment, organisations need the widest possible range of views and mindsets to support robust decision-making.

So how does coaching help organisations tackle the barriers to women’s progression?

Coaching men is part of the answer. Our work with top teams and with individual male leaders can get into the territory of unconscious bias, and how boardrooms can create a hostile environment — often unwittingly. This can be just as true of the team with one woman, as it is of the team with none. Being the only woman on the top team can demand huge reservoirs of resilience.

There is as much diversity amongst the senior women we coach as there is amongst senior men, and we don’t want to stereotype. However, our ambitious female clients are more likely to want support with:

• Navigating a male-dominated culture
• Feeling they are not being heard in meetings
• Engaging actively with organisational politics
• Recognising their self-confidence issues
• Trying too hard to please or to fit in
• Finding it hard to let go of perfectionism
• Being reluctant to make time for networking or socialising
• Feeling pulled in all directions, at work and at home.

These are familiar and recurring themes. Our coaches, both male and female, use a range of strategies and approaches to address them.

When we ask organisations about the impact of coaching on their senior women, they talk about:

• Women being heard, and contributing fresh perspectives to decision-making
• Senior leaders demonstrating a wide range of influencing skills and creating a more collaborative culture
• Female talent staying longer in organisations and acting as role models to the next generation; and
• Enhanced bottom line results.

Women themselves report:

• Career advancement, and successful transitions into new roles
• Renewed self-confidence
• Positive feedback on their impact and relationships
• Enhanced well being

Outcomes like this are surely worth the investment.