Episode 67 : The Glass Cliff : The Corporation Setup For Underrepresented Women To Fail

Dear Corner Office

I'm excited to continue this conversation, and to continue talking about data, how to utilize it to retain and develop underrepresented employees. And in the coming in the previous two years, organizations, especially after the murder of George Floyd, have come forward to say, hey, we want to, we want to have more black employees, right? But what does that look like? What does that look like for employers to do this work? So before we get started, before I get started, I should say, I want to ask you a question Which of the following theories on workplace issues faced by women? Have you heard of the broken wrong, glass step, bamboo, ceiling, glass ceiling, concrete ceiling, glass cliff, and you can you can select as many as possible, I really want us to understand there are nuances. And there are differences in all of these different topics that I've dropped in here, as as options, and how they play differently depending on the intersectionality of gender, and race, specifically, gender and race, specifically, somebody who used to be an executive in HR in automotive industry, she talked about the glass ceiling, she was like, we often talk about breaking the glass ceiling. But understand when you break the glass ceiling, people get injured and hurt, you're going to get cut, it's going to be bloody, to break the glass ceiling, I want you to think about that, remember, is that ladder going up to the glass ceiling, and you're trying to break it? And there are other women below you, right? And so when you break it, that glass is gonna fall and the closer you are to that crack in that hole of that opening in the glass, you're more likely to get hurt. And so I want you to think about psychologically not psychological what are the things are how are women, black people injured, when and and Hispanics injuries and natives injured when we're breaking the glass ceiling, because that's truly shows what what what can happen to you in a workplace is so physically threatened psychological, Lee, drained, mentally drained, there are a lot of things that go on when you break the glass ceiling. So some of us are going into workplaces. And we may be encountering the person that broke the glass ceiling in that facility. And you may like Oh, they're so rude or, or OR XY and Z, when in your engagements with them, but understand, they may be really carrying a cast emotionally inside from having broken the glass ceiling. And so there are so many things that happens to for the people that are closest to that glass ceiling that break it. The Broken rung is something that lean in organization has defined when it comes to the ladder going up to the glass ceiling. And that as you look at from black women to Latinas to Indigenous women, we don't have an equal measure of rungs, we're missing rungs steps to go up the ladder. And so that's what they call a broken rung. In the 90s, a organization called Women in Technology international did a study just in tech organizations about why they weren't seeing women get promoted. And it wasn't called the glass ceiling that was already a term that was already being used. It was called a glass step, how to use it it was it was elusive, they couldn't see it or find it to get the get get a promotion and organization. When we say the bamboo ceiling is often referring to people of Asian descent, and bamboo being something that you see in Asian countries or on the continent of Asia. And so they call that the bamboo ceiling. When we just talked about the glass ceiling, which is very popular the concrete ceiling I actually did a virtual summit a few years ago called the concrete ceiling when I refer to the concrete ceiling as additional barriers or how difficult it really is for black people to be promoted within the workplace. How how tough it is and as a civil engineer concrete when I speak a conference I'm even talking about rebar in it. So you're trying, you're trying to push you can't push through, you can't take anything really hard, you might have to jackhammer, like, how much more work and now is it isn't glasses falling on is huge chunks of rocks. So you're talking about bruises and concussions, and broken bones and so many other things that as black people may endure, and trying to progress throughout an organization. But today, I'm going to focus on the glass cliff. It is it I see a lot of you know it. And so I'm happy to see so many of you are familiar with it. I don't know if you've read about it recently, if it was a webinar I did a couple of months ago about it. But I'm happy to talk about it. And so let's get into the glass cliff. And really, why I want to I am talking about it is because over the last few couple years, organizations have said they want to increase the number of black employees they have, how they approach recruitment, maybe not retention, which is why we focus a lot on retention today. I've seen so many of you, and congratulations on your promotions and new jobs, you have worked tremendous, tremendously to get there. And I don't want you any whatsoever to take this as me diluting or degrading the work you've done. I want to talk about the glass cliff, because I want you to be a success in this role. And those that are to come. The glass cliff is specifically when organizations typically hire more women and underrepresented people into management roles during times of distress. So the great recession, the onset of a pandemic, poor performance, or not as high. What do I say generating revenue, high turnover, so the great resignation or the great reset? And so organizations then see an increase of hiring of women and underrepresented people. And you're like, and you're like, Why? Why does this happen? White men, like oh, no, I'm not taking that job, not in these conditions, you can forget this. And so they're looking for candidates, and I always tell people, it's not that they can't find us is that they don't bother to go look for us. And so white men won't take on these roles. So they turn to previously less qualified people, right? To take on these roles in some of the most trying times, economically, socially, or even just for their organization. And so what does that lead to, and what and what happens to companies. And so companies will interview qualified White candidates, but they refuse to take the role where women and underrepresented people will be like, well, this could be my only opportunity to be an executive. I want you to think about that, in reference to what I said about the glass cliff, about the glass door, I mean, glass door, the glass, glass step, the concrete ceiling, the bamboo ceiling, we know there are so many barriers, and those barriers are removed, or a lot of them are removed for this opportunity. And so we know, inherently this may be the only time or what are next to the last time that we will have this opportunity for this type of role. And so we take it according to research, 30 63% of people believe that women should take over a company a crisis. Why do we have to take over something in crisis? Why can't we take it over when it's easy to do? So that makes you think you're saying we're under qualified when it's not in crisis, but we're qualified when it is in crisis. And also, while female CEOs are 45% more likely than men to be dismissed and fired. So women doesn't matter. I'm pretty sure when you look at race, it probably gets higher because we haven't had that many we've only had like three black women CEOs are generally more likely in Fortune 500 We've only had three black women see you are more likely to get fired by 45%. But you want us to take over Okay, and so now you can see where the setup starts right? You want us in crisis but you Probably gonna fire us anyway. So why do companies really create the glass cliff? And I found it to be four main reasons, reasons.
They want it to look like, Oh, we're progressive. We're for millennials and Gen Z years, we hear you. They want to scapegoat. They want to be able to blame somebody, probably somebody would have had the least amount of blowback from or be held accountable. Right? It's like, oh, well, that person she hurt her? Or are those people underrepresented people, they probably didn't have the skill set anyway. So they're looking for a scapegoat for as to why things don't go? Well. Again, they don't have that many options for high of white men. And so they're they turn to women, and black, indigenous and other people of color. And then lastly, good PR, we're gonna say, we have this person, as, as an executive is going to make us look like we got to run it through all of the channels internationally, so they can see how progressive we are. Yeah, let's, let's see. So why is understanding the glass cliff. So important? Number one, black women, Latinos, indigenous women, matter. inclusive cultures, organizations with inclusive cultures exists in very low numbers for underrepresented women. And there are high levels of performative hiring going on right now. And so just being aware of this is important. But more importantly, not more importantly, you matters the most important if so does your career. And so if you've spent decades, if you like, well, I've only been in industry 12 years, well, you also did 12 years of secondary education, you did at least four or five years of undergraduate education. So you're invested in this at this point, decades and years. So it's really important to understand that you are way more invested in your career this than the amount of time you spent at an employer or with a with a job. So the impact of the glass cliff to our organization is really huge. So and the impact of women is even bigger, so you will end up exiting the company, women, maybe that's you, leaving the field, being demoted, being fired, your self worth declines, depression, increased stress, that these are some of the impacts of the glass cliff, on individuals, people. And sometimes we tie ourselves work to a job title to a lifestyle. And we really shouldn't. But that is so American to do that. And I think we need to reframe that if we can't, on a societal basis at one time, but on an individual basis. And so really think about what the impact has on an individual basis. But it's also important to understand how to spot a glass cliff, you can do things as analyzing the job description, and the interview, interviewing process. And what I mean by that job description, they have everything in there, except for resources that they're going to provide. So the job description has all of these things they want you to do. They threw in everything, not just everything, including the kitchen sink, they threw everything in your house, the neighbor's house, across the street, and a neighbor house behind you, like they want you to do all of these things. And his role is like Holub does not want to roll these are 12. Like that's, that's so many red flags right there. During the interview process, you're asking them why the role is open? How did they handle any any performance issues with a person that was previously in the role? Why did the person what happened to the person that was previously in the role? How's the company current currently performing? The person that was previously in the role? what resources did they have access to? Right? You want to dig in, because you're now in an executive level role? And it's important to understand these things, and what are the outcomes and goals they're looking for you to achieve in that role? They may be hidden in hon. And that is when you know, you know what, even from the job description and you probably have gotten something a headhunter may have reached out to you about about the role. But then you're looking at employee turnover rate, and that's something you can also ask about during the interview. So If you miss the stars interview, she was talking about how Nordstrom had a turnover rate of 221%. You know, the first thing I would have said, if I was new to that organizations like, you got the wrong one on the right day, but I appreciate you let me know we can we can stop this interview. Because this is not for me, I, the amount of work and stress test you may have to come in to resolve and reduce that turnover, especially as a new employee may not be the best opportunity for me. Then on top of that company performance are your stocks down? So we recently been talking about all the tech stocks are down and like should you buy should you sell should you know, what should you do? Or should you sit on it? And so you want to look at overall company performance, also comparing that to where they were last year, three years ago, five years ago, and what are other competitors doing in the market. So if they're publicly traded, if they're not, you can also look at what's going on in the market, through certain industry organizations and so forth, in that particular region, or a part of the country or country, or even on that continent. So do some study on the company's performance and also ask some questions. They look for negative publicity about the organization. Have they been sued? How recently have seen what were they sued for? What was the outcomes? Can you get any information on, on who were the litigants and really try to dig into any lawsuits or any negative publicity that's going on and negative. Can be this. I have a friend she bought a Tesla. And I all I keep seeing every day on tick tock is a story about why Tesla's nobody should buy a Tesla. And I was like, Ooh, and so even a tick tock like how many tic TOCs? Are they like they're out there? How many issues is the company seeing with their products or services. And so you really want to study those as well and understand that. And so I could get into some specific examples. But I know we're running low on time. But some common and and if you're an employer side, and you're like, Oh, we're diversifying our management team, I need you to take these things at heart to making sure it's equitable. And that doesn't mean you you're giving that same exact resources to the employee data. So a woman or underrepresented person, they may need additional resources. And he's like, Well, we gave them the same thing as the previous person, they may need a different and more resources. And so it's really an important seek to understand that. So to us, it may be limited resources to you. But that's what we gave everybody else in the conversation we were having with Christina Smith, she said, where we're seeing success with underrepresented employees to progress in their career, they're getting a sponsor, they're getting a mentor, they're getting a coach. And I think community is also part of that. So you have a community of peers to go to who understand barriers you're going to encounter, as a mother as a caregiver, as as being married or being a part of the LGBTQ AI community that others can't relate to, because they're they're not they don't identify with the these aspects of your person. And I think community is another aspect and not necessarily the erg. But there are communities that really focus on intersectionality of gender, at least gender and race that can be done. KPIs and metrics for your goal are not realistic, and making sure they're realistic, and they're measurable, right. And you can look at the previous KPIs, but we didn't really have any for John then why are you giving something to Keisha? Why are you giving some to sue? Why are you giving some to Jamal or Tyrone, and it's really important to center that and ask those questions. If the these are equitable, and then lastly, compensation is less than their predecessor. If a well that, you know, they don't have that experience, but you want them to come in and do the same job. The compensation, especially in an in economic turmoil, the compensation probably need to be higher, because they are going to need additional help. And it may impact them mentally physically. In Other ways more, and so they may end up needing to talk to their therapist more,
they may need to go to the gym more. And so they may need different things that they're going to have to spend their money personal money on, and invest in on an individual basis. So keep that in mind to where as an employer as to what ways you're addressing the glass cliff and not having it be a glass plus, it is very, very easy to fail people. It takes effort, it takes resources, it takes planning to help people succeed, right, and you want to measure this. And so if you're an employer, the first thing you want to do is look at what you had from the predecessor to what you're offering to the new person coming into the role. And resources compensation, KPIs, goals, and KPIs being key performance indicators, Key Performance Indicator, if they're measurable, what support do they have as far as a staff and a team and keep it all of those things? There? And so you need to be able to and also be looking at your people analytics to understand your hiring rate, your turnover rate? Are you sending them how, how is their performance being reviewed? Is their performance being reviewed equitably? In their performance? Are there things that are actionable? And what I mean by actionable, you know, go talk to Tom haven't run the numbers, and have him help you understand the financial statements, the balance sheet, I see that you're struggling with that. So you need to understand 123 on a balance sheet for the finances for your division, others other none actual things. You really suck at your financial statements get better at it? Which financial statements therefore, in what way? Do I suck at it, those aren't actionable things. And so you want to make sure you're providing actionable changes for the employee to take, because that is another huge barrier we're seeing when it comes to employers. When it comes to employers, understanding your your gaps that you already have with existing employees, and really analyzing your people analytics, on a regular basis is really important. So if you haven't looked at your attrition rate, if you haven't looked at your employee engagement surveys, and dissected them by gender, and race, it's really important to do that. So you understand who's leaving the organization on their own, who's going out on performance improvement plans. going back and looking at how managers may have reviewed individuals, it's really important to understand how your processes, procedures and practices are executed in the organization. And if they're executed on an equitable basis. And oftentimes, we aren't doing that we may be doing gender. And so we're looking at men and women, both for white women, to black women, to Latinos, to Indigenous women to multiracial, or even ambiguous people, looking women are all treated differently. And then mothers adding mothers and their caregivers, it takes a whole other turn, and really digging in deep into that data to understand what's going on in your organization. If this is something your organization hasn't done yet, needs assistance with doing positive hire is here to help you with that. So if this is something you're looking to get help with you just or maybe you just want to have a discussion more about what that can look like. Definitely, definitely schedule a time with me so we can discuss how positive hire can support you. But before we wrap up here, some I want organizations to really understand the impact of the glass cliff. Overall. It's it reduces employee engagement among underrepresented employees, because when we see what somebody who looks like us is going through in your organization, we're less engaged there when things go public, it is bad PR for your organization, it becomes more difficult for you to attract recruit diverse or underrepresented talent period. Google has a really big push to diversify the talent. Prior to the pandemic. A lot of Gen Xers would not apply for jobs at Google. The PR was bad Millennials, Gen Z ers are okay. But there are a lot of Gen Xers that would not that we wouldn't even talk about I had I have had several conversations about not wanting to work at Google. Then there are Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims and lawsuits, they increase. And then you're you're spending more money on your diversity recruitment efforts. So overall, you're because you have this glass cliff. For underrepresented employees, it costs you more money because you did not treat your employees equitably. And so what are things organizations can do? Perform employee engagement surveys, use people analytics with a DI lens, provide training to your C suite and middle managers who identify as white, they're not underrepresented. And your C suite is committed to equitable changes around learning and development and performance reviews. But more importantly, organizations need to identify why and commit resources to address a resolve their diversity, equity inclusion issues, their culture issues within an organization, and you have to be committed. One last thing I would like to add is leadership that identifies that white need to go on a journey themselves to really understand what racism is, oftentimes, they hire a chief diversity officer, they'll handle it. Because you don't understand your own biases, and what racism and sexism looks like. In real life, it is imperative that you do that work on one of our previous previous speakers and guests. And partners for positive hire is Lan hurdle. And she has a program called On the matter of work race, where she only works with white people to better understand racism. And so it's really important to understand it on an individual level. So you better understand it, how your policies, practices and procedures within your organization play out. But how does it play out also in your individual lives. And then I want to say, these are the three biggest barriers to progress when it comes to the glass cliff. Often people prefer male leaders, and qualities typically associated with men. And so it's very, very difficult for underrepresented people, especially women to progress into management, the lack of diversity and boards and other leadership roles in the organization, where they bring in different perspectives and understand the power of diversifying their management teams are not there. And then lastly, the organization has proof certain types of people fail in leadership roles, it is easy to fail people, it takes intense effort and resources to help someone succeed. If you have children, if you've ever had to train a puppy to go to the bathroom, it takes effort. And it takes work and being committed. And so organizations really need commit this. So I am going to stop there it is this is the glass cliff, it is very much a real thing. Unfortunately, we're going to see so many women encounter this in the next year or two. But I want to make sure organizations understand what it is, how to deal with it, and to be very intentional about changing it in their organization because it can absolutely be changed and utilizing data for it is another big step. Yes, if you have any questions, I will take questions. Also, we're going to drop in the survey about
my session. And then we will send out a survey for the entire virtual summit to get your feedback on everything like the time of day, the day of the week, so we can really understand how best to serve you I see some familiar faces or names in the audience. So I'm glad you can join us today or for any of the sessions because we do this not for us. We do these these things for you. We do them for your organization's we do them for your children and your grandchildren to really change what the workplace looks like today for the future. But we have to start in this moment in this time, in order for the future, workplace to look different. So the future of work starts now. It doesn't start and so all of those people that are talking about their future work. And prior to 2020 we this is the future. It was accelerated. And so we are here now and we are here We're making that happen so everybody if you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn you can connect with me at Michele C Heyward