Accredited Chartered Manager (CMI), Eman Deabil, gives us valuable insights into how to get to the boardroom.
If you’ve read my last article which appeared in the February issue of Woman This Month, let’s pick up where we left off – with the million-dollar question: What does it take to get to the boardroom?
The answer to this question might not be straightforward as there is no predefined checklist or criteria to make a woman qualified for a seat in the boardroom. Different industries, organizations and countries might require different criteria, simply put – no one size fits all. Realistically speaking, in some societies, your family name, connections, nationality, colour and ethnicity matter more than your knowledge, experience and qualities. However, at least from a gender perspective, if we look at the figures shared in the previous part, your chances to become a board member are higher by around 90% if you are a man – but that comes at a cost!
According to the report published by the World Bank Group in 2018 titled “The Cost of Gender Inequality, Unrealized Potential: The High Cost of Gender Inequality in Earnings” women account for only 38% of human capital wealth versus 62% for men globally. It’s a third or less in low and lower-middle income countries.
As said by the CEO of Trust Re and a Board Member in a number of organizations, Talal Al-Zain: “The cost of not engaging half (or more) of the population in decision making at all levels is massive. It’s an opportunity loss on the national economy front. Empowering competent contributors who formulates large portions of our population is key to achieving Vision 2030.”
Now let’s look at the 95 women in our sampled organizations who made it to the boardroom and try to analyze their profiles, this might give us a clue as to what the criteria could be to pave the path to the boardroom.
First, to be precise, we have only 82 unique profiles for women in our dataset, several women have a presence in several boards (three women in three boards, five women in two boards) – this observation is applicable to men and women. The fact that we have repeating profiles raises several questions:
- What made these profiles (men and women) so competitive to enter more than one boardroom?
- Do we have other capable or competent women who can be board members? If we do, then where are they? If we don’t, then how do the education and vocational training systems contribute to creating more capable or competent women?
- How do we define capability or competence when it comes to the boardroom (e.g., educational background, minimum years of experience, exposure, etc.)?
- Did we take into consideration corporate governance best practices when a board member is hired in different boards (e.g. conflict of interest matters, serving competing organizations, etc.)?
- Can the average human being maintain focus and show dedication if he or she is a board member in several boards? Is it an honorary title or a position that implies certain duties and accountabilities?
- Nevertheless, serving in more than one board is not our topic, let’s get back on track and speak about the women’s path to the boardroom. Here are some observations:
- 14 women out of 82 (17%) are working for the family business.
- 18 women are holding PhD/doctorate degrees (22%), 12 in education and the training sector, two in health services, two in financial institutions, and two in other services.
- Bahraini women are around 65 out of the 82 (79%).
- These women are scattered across a variety of age groups, but the majority are above 40.
- We can say that holding high academic degrees, being middle-aged, being local, or studying abroad might be good contributing factors, but this is yet to be proved.
At the global level there are many good initiatives and serious movements on women empowerment to leadership positions, for instance in January 2021, the German cabinet agreed a quota for women on listed companies’ boards. Now the question is: Are women looking for a quota?
At the individual level, for those who have the dream of climbing the ladder, first you need to remember that “the future belongs to those who know where they belong”. If you believe that you belong in the boardroom, then all the powers in the world will ally to put you there, no matter what your gender is. But just like anything else, to work on achieving something, there are factors that will contribute or hinder. As long as you’re clear about your goal, keep playing and never give up, being clear about it upfront, will enable you to program and train your mind to accept challenges and take calculated risks. As rightly stated by Stephen R. Covey: “start with the end in mind”.
Secondly, experience doesn’t come overnight, it doesn’t come by spending years in the same job, sitting behind your desk for 8 hours, waiting for your salary end of month to pay your bills, and expecting a good appraisal followed by a pay raise every end of year. You need to expand your horizon, look above and beyond, make career shifts vertically and horizontally sometimes. Try to look at things through different lenses, allow yourself to switch hats. Experience is the sum of your efforts and to stand on solid grounds, you need to build it brick by brick.
Third, your network is very essential in your journey. Define the network you want to be part of, expand it by selecting the people surrounding you wisely and strategically. Don’t forget to establish and maintain a high level of Political Intelligence (PQ) or political awareness. Meaning, try to understand the dynamics in your surroundings.
Fourth, being authentic and staying authentic is not an easy mandate, whether you want to be a board member or you are already one, you need to be authentic anyways, you need to build a good reputation. Stay true to your values and walk your talks, state your mind and express yourself openly, activate your guts and your common sense, voice out your opinion, make it loud and clear. Many people will try to put you down, others will let you down, but that should never break you.
Diversity is a multi-faceted term, widely misused, and it’s not limited to gender. The whole ecosystem should embrace more diversity in all aspects. More diversity at the top means more viewpoints and translates into a variety of solutions and eventually better decisions. Diversity is key to drive a positive change and contribute to economic growth. The puzzle is not complete by repeating the same piece, it’s complete only when we use different pieces that complete one another.
