Women Achievers Project

The CEO of one of Silicon Valley's high performance companies wanted to know why in an employee opinion survey, the "Women Achievers" in the company had significantly different perceptions about:

• Their own opportunities to be promoted based on equal merit

• The extent to which the company modeled expressed values–particularly with regard to open and honest communication

In confidential focus groups and individual interviews, we spoke with women who greatly appreciated the opportunity, the challenge and rewards of the company. Out of the commitment to improve their own and company performance, they disclosed what in the company's culture was contrary to their effectiveness and careers:

• Disparate treatment and lack of acknowledgment along with other everyday messages–"the writing on the wall"– conveyed poor chance of promotion.

• Exclusion from the information loop and otherwise poor information flow impaired their ability to get the job done most effectively.

• Decisions and behaviors countered their training, experience and judgment as to what is best for business–the organization, customers, and the bottom line.

• Lack of women in executive management represented not only a lack of opportunity for advancement, but a lack of someone who brought a different thinking, their kind of thinking, to the company.

What was the impact of these disclosures?

We identified systemic policies, cultural practices and specific examples of what women perceived as indicators that much of their contribution was not valued– that they did not have equal opportunity for promotion based on equal merit.

Well intentioned people had been unaware of the interpretation and impact of these policies and behaviors.

Within three months of our final report to the CEO, 2 women were promoted to vice presidential positions, 3 to directors positions and the CEO was looking for a woman for the Board of Directors. A number of policies and practices changed during the year.

A year later, the employee survey showed a significant improvement of women's perceptions of "opportunity for promotion of women and minorities based on equal merit" as well as improved perceptions about the company across the spectrum of survey questions.

What did we learn made a difference?

We need to ask questions of and listen to the women of an organization–and respond. The experience of being listened to and being heard is an important factor in the change in perception.

In today's workplace, to get full value from different perspectives, we need to identify:

Just as we find it important to learn about the cultures of the countries we do business with, it is important to understand these cultures of men and women. As with any cultural attribute, answers do not apply to everyone in the group and there is broad variation among those who do identify with women's cultural perspective. The differences of men and women have been well documented in the last 10 years–and that means, too, a difference for business.

In this study, we found numerous examples of different perspectives about vital business concerns which were not being recognized or utilized.

We invite you to ask Banducci Consulting about specific findings, what may be applicable to your organization and what is unique to your company.
E-mail: , Tel 650 529-9336.