The confident candidate won't bring you success

Research finds women are no less ambitious or entrepreneurial than men, yet they are consistently chosen less for leadership succession, even when met with equal education and experience levels. By 2036 executive-level gender equality is predicted to only just reach the FTSE350, making the date of this much later for SMEs, which make up 99.9% of the businesses in the UK. This issue will see many generations of talented women stand to miss out on deserved roles if changes are not put into place. It is also important to note future equality is not guaranteed, this has been highlighted by the gendered effects of the covid pandemic, which have slowed the progression of gender parity. 

Women’s equality is essential, and fair and has a ripple effect of advantages, including benefits to business, and the economy. New studies continually remind us that diverse leadership teams improve a business’s performance and firms with women in leadership roles are more profitable than those without. If the UK firms with less than 1/3 of female leadership on their boards performed as well as those with over 1/3 of female leadership, the UK would see an additional £123 billions of pre-tax profit added to the GDP. The growth of the economy and gender equality should work hand in hand.

The #WECAN reports

 Two recent #WECAN publications, ‘Women and Succession Planning in SMES’ and ‘Women and Organisational Culture in SMEs’, to which I have contributed to, have looked to further explore the succession gender hiring gap, with a focus on the North of England. Both reports have supported the hypothesis that there is a gap between what is considered important in a successor and what will bring success. Interestingly, many of the characteristics that are considered key to an ideal candidate are inherently male traits. 

The ‘Women and Succession Planning in SMEs’ report, highlights this disparity between the specific skills sought for succession and those that bring success, for example, there is a desire for homogenous succession hiring, keeping the status quo, this is despite diverse skills and differences producing the most success. Interestingly, the survey results in the #WECAN study showed that 41.3% of respondents believed the cultural fit was the most important factor in a succession, in contrast with what actually generates the most success and unfortunately further amplifies the issues of gender-biased hiring.

Similarly, ‘economic capital’ which we can consider as sales portfolio, or number of clients delivered with the succession by a candidate who is individualist, is considered a very important trait for a successor. This is supported by the report findings that found the survey respondents do not consider a collectivist worldview important for a successor, however this again conflicts with the research on what makes a good candidate, which finds that choosing a successor on their sales portfolio is highly flawed. These candidates, though profitable, can lack the skills to share information with peers, making a collectivist view much more fruitful. 

The ‘Women and Organisational Culture in SMEs’ report takes this further, looking specifically at gender applied to trait theory. Most of the respondents believe they have traditionally ‘feminine’ traits but consider ‘masculine’ traits will bring the most business success. This was particularly clear when looking at empathy and an emotional mindset. 34.8% of respondents graded an emotional mindset as the lowest level of importance for career progression. Similarly, 89.2% of participants highlighted that they have an empathetic mindset, but only 54.3% of participants believe this will bring progression in a role.

Interestingly, 21.8% of participants believe that empathy does not bring progression at all. This mismatch indicates participants do not unanimously see the benefits of ‘soft skills’ on progression, thus rejecting what is commonly perceived as a feminine characteristic. This is again in contrast to the research around successful succession, for example the findings of Ciampa (2016) who attests it is not a weakness in finance or operational ability that brings CEO failure, but a deficiency in developed soft skills, such as emotional intelligence and empathy, which cause conflict due to successors remaining unprepared to manage a different organisational culture and the politics.

The process of working with the #WECAN project has given me the opportunity to test methods whilst building up research for my PhD. Particularly, it has provided justification for my methods and strategy. I am excited to continue this project and if all goes to plan, create a meaningful difference for equality in the UK’s largest business category.

The Links to my ongoing PHD

Prior to my academic career, where I currently lecture in Marketing, I ran a project team in the busy international events and marketing industry, working predominantly within SMEs acting as a full-service agency for global organisations, from toy producers to pharmaceutical giants. This industry experience drove my passion for business and particularly the gender disparities seen in succession planning, or the lack thereof. Solving the gender disparity crisis in succession planning is not just fair, it makes business sense. My PhD topic; ‘SME succession planning and gender; an analysis of the ways in which business owners can effectively plan their own successions with a focus on success and gender equality’ acknowledges that there is a problem, supported by copious existing research which also highlights this, my focus is on the ways in which to alleviate this. My early findings have been driven by my systematic literature review created from assessing all articles which consider succession from the top 30 ‘H’ rated journals from Scimago, across HR, business and management and finance. This has given me a total of 196 articles which I have read and analysed to find the correlation. The findings from this research have created a picture of misperception and misinterpretation around succession planning; businesses do not plan enough for succession and when they do plan, the merit they measure against can be characteristically male or fundamentally unhelpful to what creates a successful heir. Characteristics such as confidence, self-promotion and public speaking abilities are coveted but do not make a perfect successor, with ‘soft skills’ such as emotional intelligence undervalued despite creating the best results. 

The process of working with the #WECAN project has given me the opportunity to test methods whilst building up research for my PhD. Particularly, it has provided justification for my methods and strategy. I am excited to continue this project and if all goes to plan, create a meaningful difference for equality in the UK’s largest business category.

References

Ciampa, D. (2016). After the handshake. Harvard Business Review (December), pp. 1– 5. 
Downar, B., Ernstberger, J. And Koch, C. (2021) Who makes partner in Big 4 Audit firms? – Evidence from Germany. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 91 May, pp. 1-19.
Feldmann, M., L.ukes, M. & Uhlaner, L. (2022). Disentangling succession and entrepreneurship gender gaps: gender norms, culture, and family. Small Bus Econ 58, pp. 997–1013. 
Maite Fernandez, S. (2021). Covid caused 'big losses' for gender equality in Europe, new index says." Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2021, p. N/A.
Martin, L. (2001). More jobs for the boys? Succession planning in SMEs. Women in Management Review, 16 (5), pp. 222 – 231.
Powell, G., N. And Butterfield, A. (2013). Sex, gender, and aspirations to top management: Who's opting out? Who's opting in? Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 82 (1) February, pp. 30-36.
The Pipeline. (2021). The Pipeline Women Count 2021. https://execpipeline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Women-Count-2021-Report.pdf 
Sorcher, M. And Brant, J. (2002) Are you picking the right leaders?. The Harvard Business Review.