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Gender diversity has strongly progressed in businesses over the past few years. Yet, strong disparities remain in management positions. Whilst the willingness is clearly displayed, and even when sincere, female candidates to fill the required profile are still missing. How can you break this persisting glass ceiling?

One of the action tracks proposed in this study is cultural. Women are more numerous than men to suffer from the “impostor syndrome”, this propension to under-evaluate one’s competences despite success. This is how they often wait until they tick all the criteria requested to become candidates to a position, whereas men consider it normal to master some competences whilst needing to develop others. Furthermore, “women tend to evaluate themselves one to two levels below an equivalent position,” Laurence Batlle, President of Foncia ADB, underlines.

Sensitizing men and women to the need of correcting the perception that women have of their own competences and aptitudes is thus indispensable to restore a balance. The women will also gain by being accompanied by a colleague playing the role of sparring partner, by a mentor or a coach to help them seize the opportunities that emerge, and thus accelerate their professional track.

Source: Trajectoires de carrière au féminin - Qu’est-ce qui éloigne encore les femmes des postes de direction en entreprise en 2022 ? [Women’s professional tracks—What still keeps women away from business management positions in 2022?], Grandes Écoles au Féminin/Roland Berger, November 2022.

In this interview, business organizations’ sociologist François Dupuy takes stock of the evolution of management styles, from Taylorism to cooperative models. Paradoxically, the traditional authoritarian approach seemed more propitious to commitment: the work was segmented and sequential; it was easy to take note that the expected work had been well done and to reward it.

The current models have aimed at breaking the silos. Apparently a common-sense decision: by cooperating, it becomes possible to optimize the operating methods and to ensure that the whole organization takes advantage of each unit’s progress. But this came hand in hand with an increasing disengagement of the staff. A point to remember from this analysis is notably that cooperation does not come easily. It requires an effort, by demanding that we get out of our comfort zone by placing ourselves in a situation of interdependence. It blurs the perception of the impact of our own efforts, which hampers motivation. Thus, asking your teams to cooperate is not sufficient. It is also — and maybe even foremost — through regulating and setting up processes that make cooperation natural that it will be possible to make it happen.

Source: François Dupuy : « l’injonction à la coopération est généralement stérile » [The injunction to cooperate is generally sterile], Observatoire de la compétence métier, obervatoire-ocm.com, December 2022.

“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality”, Seneca noted. Stoic philosophy reminds us that the way we experience a situation is not only the reflection of the events. It is also linked to what we imagine could happen. Yet, if our fears do not always turn true, the simple fact of having imagined them has an immediate price, under the form of anxiety, stress or even paralysis.

This book invites us to become aware of this bias, and to exercise extra vigilance when the future is uncertain or when we do not control the situation. It is then time to take a break, even to talk with a person who will know how to maintain some distance, such as a coach or a friend external to this anxiety-generating context: what is the probability that the worst-case scenario, on which your fears are focused, actually happens? What is the part of delusion stemming from a projection of your fears? What do you have control over, here and now, and what should you focus on to draw some gain?

A proven approach to avoid inflicting yourself today a real suffering over hypothetical future damages.

Source: The Little Book of Stoicism, Jonas Salzgeber, self-published, 2019.

In a recent Gallup survey, more than half of the employees who had resigned indicated that no one, not even their manager, asked them in the three months prior to their departure whether they were satisfied with their job, or how they saw their future in the company. And 52% underlined that their manager or their organization could have definitely done something to get them to change their mind. A preposterous number at a time when organizations face the “Great Resignation”.

Do not wait for your staff to hand in their resignation to hold real conversations on their aspirations! This article invites you to regularly address five essential questions with them:

- How would you like to develop within this organization?

- What is the meaning of your work in your view?

- How can I help you excel in your job?

- In your opinion, what could the company do better?

- Does your job enable you to make full use of your talents on a daily basis? A checklist to keep in mind to minimize the risk of seeing your best personnel leave.

Source: 5 Questions Every Manager Needs to Ask Their Direct Reports, Susan Peppercorn, HarvardBusiness Review, January 2022.

Many business leaders worry about their company culture “evaporating” since it has become difficult to get the staff back in the office after the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, an international Gartner survey shows that only 25% of salaried personnel who work remotely feel connected to their company culture. Yet, those who feel connected enjoy a significantly higher performance and have 36% more chances to remain loyal to their company.

How then to foster the adhesion to the culture when the personnels are rarely present on site and have less time for informal exchanges? The study shows that it is not as much the physical proximity as the emotional one that matters. It is less about being in touch with others than about the feeling that we are important to them.

This involves placing particular attention to each of the interactions—since they are less numerous. In particular, you should only invite to meetings those whose presence is necessary: they thus feel that their contributions are valued. It is also imperative to be in a position to spot these staff who undermine the feeling of belonging through “toxic” interactions. Questioning the emotional proximity built by each interaction thus becomes essential.

Sources: Evolve Culture & Leadership for the Hybrid Workplace, Gartner, 2022; Revitalizing Culture inthe World of Hybrid Work, Harvard Business Review, November-December 2022.