Advancing women at GE - Building Gender Balanced Business

“In Europe, 20 percent of GE’s leadership were women in 2007. This represented about half of the total number of women in GE’s workforce in Europe.”

“GE’s Women’s Network enables women to learn a great deal about their day-to-day jobs, regarding strategy, getting exposure to senior leaders, getting to know other women in the organisation and connecting them to potential role models.”

The importance of bringing these middle managers around is “fundamental”, she adds. They have a lot of responsibility for the women coming up through the leadership pipeline and can do a great deal to encourage them to develop as leaders.

HOW TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR WOMEN LEADERS

In general, women are likely to be more sensitive to other women’s behaviour and needs. For example, Fernandez is acutely aware of the fact that women often are less likely to pound the negotiating table with the same zeal as their male colleagues. As studies have shown, women often feel less confident about making demands for pay and promotion, even though their performance may warrant it. There are two responses to this behaviour nuance, says Fernandez. You can demand that women pound the table as aggressively as the men. “But you don’t want to make a woman act like a man if that is not a natural thing for her to do.” Or, you can make a big effort as a manager to find out what a woman might want in terms of pay and promotion and encourage her to apply for it. Fernandez suggests there may be a halfway point where women are encouraged to be a little more aggressive.

In her work as a manager, she makes sure this issue is factored in. “I will make a very conscious effort to make sure that even if women don’t have the natural tendency to ask for more pay and promotion, I think it is my job to do that [for them].” She is also sensitive to how stressful it can be for some working mothers to have to wait for their domestic help before they can leave home to get to work and then to have to make sure they get back in time to take over again.

HOW TO RAISE AWARENESS AMONGST MIDDLE MANAGERS

So, can the middle layer of male managers be more attuned to these kinds of issues? Fernandez believes that they can be. It is not hard to open their eyes, she says. They simply need to be made more aware of the issues from the woman’s perspective. In this the Women’s Network helps. “We make sure that those leaders get a lot of time with women. We have roundtable discussions with ten to fifteen women to larger events where they talk about their careers. They showcase what they have done and what they have learned. We ask the male leaders to sponsor some events and as they get somewhat drawn in, the engagement goes up tremendously.”

The other powerful motivator is the fact that the top leaders starting with Jeff Immelt expect all of the company’s managers to do their utmost to promote high-potential female talent. Every year, says Fernandez, all of GE’s managers must discuss what they are doing to recruit and develop women. This is covered in the one to one discussions with their immediate bosses as well as in their top level discussions with Jeff Immelt and his HR team. “They talk about diversity in general, and then they talk about female talent.” They look at the numbers of women in commercial or technology positions as well as managerial positions and whether they are ready to be moved up. “This certainly provides a very strong focus on the issue. Questions are being asked and if that is year in and year out, there is only one thing a manager can do…”, says Fernandez.

“The other powerful motivator is the fact that the top leaders starting with Jeff Immelt expect all of the company’s managers to do their utmost to promote high-potential female talent.”

One of the core issues is retaining women during the years in which they might be planning to set up a family, typically in the 25-35 age range. One of the key motivators for women to stay, says Fernandez, is the ability to further their career. “The career opportunities themselves are fundamental for the women.” They also will be encouraged and helped by seeing role models. Further, the opportunity to balance work and life is critical. GE is one of the best company’s around for work flexibility, claims Fernandez.

WHY WOMEN MAKE GOOD LEADERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Fernandez is very cautious about generalizing about any differences between men and women. But she does say that women might be more likely to have some of the inclusive skills required for modern leaders. “There are some noticeable things you see coming back statistically about women such as inclusiveness. They tend to have a really caring attitude towards their team…They are often closer to understanding what inspires and drives them in different ways.” But, she adds, “plenty of guys have those qualities as well.” However, if women are more likely to be set-up by nature, as it were, to be inspirational leaders, then the task of promoting more to the top could be critical. Fernandez believes the 21st century leader will need to be more emotionally intelligent: “You will need inspirational leadership rather than the carrot and stick approach. You will need people who can lead teams by connecting with them at much deeper levels.”

As for the future, Fernandez hopes that the need for a Women’s Network will go away. At such a time, the benefit of having an equal balance of women to men from the top down will be so obvious that it won’t need to be stated. But in the short to medium-term future, the companies that get there first will have a competitive edge over their rivals, Fernandez believes. The speed with which GE and others can advance women may well depend on the receptiveness of the middle layer of managers to these ideas. Therefore, changing the hearts and minds of this layer of management could well be one of the keys to GE’s competitive edge in the near future.