Diverse Leadership Can Help
Notably, respondents at companies with more diverse senior leadership teams (across all dimensions of diversity) show higher satisfaction with respect to the entire set of X factors. This finding may not be surprising, but it underscores a critical area for companies to get right. Diversity at the top sends a signal throughout the organization, reflecting a commitment to equitable hiring and to a bias-free, safe environment. More balanced leadership teams strengthen that organizational culture and foster an environment conducive to advancing women into senior leadership. As a growing body of research shows, this results in better performance overall—not justimproved inclusion and rates of attritionbutimproved business performanceas well.
Unfortunately, most leadership teams in tech are still overwhelmingly male and white. Withoutdiverse leadership, companies need to take other measures to improve the working environment for women at midlevel management and above—from public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion to the training of senior and midlevel leaders on how to ensure a bias-free environment.
The Power of Mentorship and Sponsorship
Our survey findings point to specific steps that companies can take to help midlevel women advance. For example, women who rise to senior roles have typically built up strong relationships and networks within their organizations—not just in the natural course of their work but also through formal sponsorship and mentorship programs.
Such programs can be an effective way to increase the satisfaction of female middle managers, and they have a multiplier effect. Get them right, and they can make a meaningful difference in the retention and advancement of midlevel women. Get them wrong, and the company loses out on an opportunity to address the challenges that matter at scale. So it’s important to understand what works—and why. Sponsorship and mentorship programs are not new ideas; many companies have them in place. Our research shows, however, that employees who are advancing more slowly than their peers are less satisfied with these offerings and less likely to participate. And this is especially true of women, whose satisfaction with such programs is 10% to 15% lower than that of men at the same level.
Sponsorship and mentorship programs can be an effective way to increase the satisfaction of female middle managers, and they have a multiplier effect.
Sponsors and mentors are distinct roles that serve very different purposes. Both mentors and sponsors provide advice and guidance, but sponsors also serve as advocates. That means speaking up—and even pounding the table—on behalf of the employees they sponsor to ensure that they are considered for promotions, new assignments, and plum projects. We have found that satisfaction with these programs is highest when midlevel leaders—men as well as women—have both a mentor and a sponsor, with the sponsor relationship being the most important.
A Playbook for Change
On the basis of our survey findings and interviews with senior executives—including many who have built diverse leadership pipelines—we have identified some concrete actions that companies can take to advance women into leadership positions in tech.
Convey the importance of both sponsors and mentors.Sponsors and mentors complement each other but can’t replace each other. It’s critical to have both, with the sponsor relationship being the most important.
Make leaders accountable for investing time in sponsorship.Companies need to actively support sponsors, and sponsors need to commit the time required to actively support the employees they sponsor. Organizations that lack an established culture of sponsorship may need to create incentives to ensure that the necessary work gets done and that participants enjoy the promised benefits.
Tailorprograms to the needs of the organization.每个公司都有自己的文化和噢n maturity levels in terms of DEI. There is no silver bullet to solving the diversity challenge; solutions need to be tailored to the specific needs and challenges of the organization.
Companies need to actively support sponsors, and sponsors need to commit the time required to actively support the employees they sponsor.
Ensure that the burden isn’t falling disproportionately on women leaders.我们发现女性高级领导人倾向于导师and sponsor larger numbers of employees compared with male senior leaders. Much of explanation may lie in the concerns of both senior men and midlevel women about the relationship between female employees and male mentors and sponsors. For example, midlevel women can be reluctant to speak freely about their experiences if they suspect that male mentors don’t fully appreciate the challenges that they face. In fact, roughly half of male mentors and sponsors in tech functions report that they have difficulty understanding those challenges. Training can mitigate some of these problems—for example, by educating men in the gender-related biases and inequities historically experienced by women in the workplace.
Create alternative pathways to leadership, such as job sharing. Alternative career pathways through tandem leadership models—with two female employees sharing a single role—offer advantages to the organization and to the executives who participate. Both women gain valuable work experience and the chance to show that they have the necessary skills, while also maintaining a reasonable work-life balance. And companies get to develop more women on the leadership track.
There’s a clear business reason to increase rates of retention and advancement for midlevel women in tech: doing so leads to better financial and operational performance. But it’s also simply the right thing to do. The lack of women on senior leadership teams is a significant problem, and it won’t go away until companies take specific steps to improve. But our work in this area points to straightforward, proven measures that tech leaders can implement—starting today.
The authors thank Jean Lee, Jie Ren, Jessica Siew, Zixuan Wang, Shuting Feng, Matt Witalec, and Nick Putnam for their research and analysis support.
