Since the Lord Davies report there has been increasing focus on board compositions and the apparent lack of women moving in to senior positions. Over the past 3 years we have witnessed various organisations and events focusing on how to address the gender gap at board level. From a personal perspective, I actually think there has been an overplay of late in terms of the women and board issue. Firstly, the assumption appears to have been made that all women actually aspire to board positions and that we know what the journey entails. I don't believe this is necessarily true and despite attending umpteen women on board events, I am yet to find anyone that has clearly mapped out what the path towards board level looks like and what the exact requirements are in terms of experience and capability.
A question I am often asked is why should women aspire to be on boards in the first place? Is it the title? A tick on ones CV? The accolade of sitting at a senior executive position? Or the ability to influence at a strategic level? I speak to an average of 300 aspiring women across a number of corporates each month. When I ask them if they understand what being on a board entails, just a handful answer. When you have a conversation with a professional female between the ages of 25 - 35 (who I might add are our future leaders) being on a board is still fairly far out in terms of their near term aspirations. 1 in 5 event invitations I have received over the past 3 years have been about women on boards - I am not saying these events are not needed or valued, I just wish there was an equal focus on how we spend the next 10 years growing and educating our future talent pool. If we can work together to ensure our future generations of talent obtain the experience, skills and network they need to reach senior positions, we may well build a culture of women that aspire to and are able to operate at board level.
The research is clear, the numbers of women in senior positions is far less than they should be, therefore our efforts to promote board positions are in fact targeted to a limited number of senior women. Whilst I absolutely believe that the playing field should be levelled in terms of gender, let us not forget the it's not just gender that balances a board. It's about having a diverse mix of individuals that see things from different perspectives. Individuals with a multitude of experiences that will not get pulled in to the world of group think. Throwing a number of women in the mix is not necessarily going to fix the problem.
We also know there is a huge gap of missing Middle Managers, lost maternity leavers, women who leave to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, this is where I believe 50% of our efforts should be being spent. If we, as role models, senior women with gravitas and extensive experience do not spend time up skilling the next generation then we will never build the talent pool we need to shift the needle. We cannot change board make-up's overnight, so whilst I agree there needs to be a initiative of sorts, I also feel that if we do not focus our efforts on building a the right talent pool, we will not have diverse Middle Managers, who make Senior Managers, who make MD's and who eventually reach a point where they are board ready. In which case, as each day passes we are missing opportunities to rectify the more strategic issue.