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A classic article about the challenge faced by women in organisations

by Nikki Watkins

This is a classic article about the challenge faced by women in organisations. Sam Walsh puts the problem of ‘lack of women in our senior ranks’ squarely on the shoulders of females.…

The enlightened CEOs who attended our House of Lords event are asking ‘What can we do?’ rather than his approach ‘What women need to do’. Unconscious Bias is very much alive in the tech world, and good CEOs recognise their need to be educated and open minded to this toxic behaviour and stamp it out, or they will sabotage their future success.

Our advice:

Understand your stats, notice where there are pockets of more balance, and where your leaders are being gender intelligent i.e. recognising the impact a mixed team will have on the performance of your business, and then hold the rest accountable.
Look at the hiring and promotion processes in your business, are they gender neutral or at least ensuring there is equal opportunity to enable both genders to be rise up the ranks.
Educate your male leaders that women need to be encouraged to talk about their successes, to express the key role they played and to take credit for the outcome – all natural traits for men. This should not impact the impression that they leave, it is the responsibility of leaders to get the right information as much as it is for women to speak up.

Here is the original article by Belinda Tasker via The Sydney Morning Herald

With 82 per cent of the mining giant’s workforce made up of men, Mr Walsh has acknowledged that the gender gap needs to be closed, especially within Rio’s senior management ranks.

But he says one of the problems is that women just aren’t confident enough in the workplace when it comes to climbing the corporate ladder.

“One of the biggest challenges is that you throw a job opportunity at a bloke and he says, `I can do that, I’ve got all the background, I know exactly what I should do’,” Mr Walsh told a mining dinner in London overnight.

“You throw the same opportunity at a woman and … well `I’ve never done that before, it would be a huge stretch’, and what-have-you.”

In a light-hearted exchange with the audience at the Melbourne Mining Club function, Mr Walsh said he was not urging women to lie in their job applications.

“Certainly not, no man would ever do that,” he said.

“But you do need to recognise that gentlemen do stretch the facts a little bit and the women here need to have more confidence in your own ability to adapt, your ability to be resilient, your ability to be flexible and responsive to a new challenge and you need to take a risk.

“They will be a strong part of the new senior management of the business.”

Mr Walsh also acknowledged gender diversity had been a problem at Rio Tinto and says he wants to boost the number of women from 18 per cent to 50 per cent.

“We get it right at an operating and working level, it’s when you get up to senior management that we have the problem,” he said.

“We’re missing out on 32 per cent of the talent that’s out there.”

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