Sophie Williams: The rigged test of leadership | TED

40,516 views ・ 2021-06-29

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Transcriber:
0
0
7000
00:13
I spend most of my time talking and thinking and writing
1
13436
4040
00:17
about women's experiences in UK and US workplaces,
2
17476
4000
00:21
particularly, Black women's experiences.
3
21516
2520
00:25
And so for me, understanding the glass cliff --
4
25116
2840
00:27
the situation that underrepresented leaders find themselves in
5
27996
3880
00:31
when they take on leadership positions,
6
31876
1960
00:33
only to find that their chances of success
7
33876
2200
00:36
have been limited before they even begin --
8
36116
2560
00:38
really was an eye-opener.
9
38716
1960
00:42
Now, I'm aware that for a lot of people,
10
42356
1920
00:44
this might be the first time you're hearing about the glass cliff.
11
44276
3120
00:47
And so I think the easiest way into the conversation
12
47436
2440
00:49
is by starting with the glass ceiling,
13
49876
2360
00:52
that invisible but seemingly impossible-to-break-through barrier
14
52276
3880
00:56
that sits above the heads of women in business
15
56156
2280
00:58
and stops them from reaching the absolute pinnacles
16
58436
2640
01:01
of their professional capabilities.
17
61076
2160
01:04
We talk a lot about the glass ceiling being there
18
64676
2360
01:07
and what it's like to live and to work underneath it.
19
67076
2880
01:09
But we don't really talk about what happens to those people
20
69956
2840
01:12
who do manage to break through.
21
72836
2080
01:15
I feel like we maybe have this shared imagination
22
75556
2600
01:18
that if someone were able to break through the glass ceiling,
23
78196
3680
01:21
it would be onwards and upwards from there, the sky's the limit.
24
81916
3640
01:25
But in reality, that's not what often happens,
25
85556
3800
01:29
because all too often, when somebody does break through the glass ceiling,
26
89356
4800
01:34
they find themselves in a new, dangerous position.
27
94156
3040
01:38
They find themselves teetering on the edge of the glass cliff.
28
98036
4080
01:44
So I'm going to talk about underrepresented people a lot in this,
29
104196
3400
01:47
and that can mean so many different things
30
107636
2040
01:49
to different people in different moments and different contexts.
31
109716
3400
01:53
But I'm talking about those people who are most underrepresented
32
113156
3520
01:56
at the most senior levels of business.
33
116676
2200
01:59
So that is women,
34
119476
1280
02:00
and that's racially marginalized people --
35
120796
2240
02:03
essentially, anybody who's not both white and male.
36
123076
3200
02:07
And so the story often goes
37
127996
1840
02:09
that when underrepresented people take over a business,
38
129876
3440
02:13
that business seems to start to fail.
39
133356
2240
02:16
And that's really strange,
40
136476
1600
02:18
and if that's true, that's worth looking into.
41
138076
2600
02:21
And so "The Times" newspaper did look into it.
42
141596
3120
02:24
And they released an article with the headline,
43
144716
2200
02:26
"Women on the Board: A Help or a Hindrance?"
44
146956
2920
02:30
And they said what I've just told you,
45
150796
1840
02:32
that when women take over businesses at those most senior levels --
46
152636
3720
02:36
board member, CEO --
47
156356
1960
02:38
that those businesses seem to find themselves in a moment of trouble.
48
158356
3320
02:42
And so, they concluded that women on the board were, in fact,
49
162436
4240
02:46
bad for business.
50
166716
1280
02:49
And they were right.
51
169116
1160
02:51
But just in one small way.
52
171156
3000
02:54
In 100 other, much bigger, much more important ways,
53
174196
2720
02:56
they were absolutely wrong.
54
176916
1760
02:58
But we can start with where they were right.
55
178676
2440
03:01
They were right that the research does show
56
181156
2480
03:03
that when underrepresented people do take on those most senior roles,
57
183676
4160
03:07
that businesses do seem to be in a moment of trouble.
58
187836
3040
03:12
But it’s not like they want you to think --
59
192036
2920
03:14
It's not that we've, you know, stomped our way into boardrooms,
60
194956
3080
03:18
only to look around and think,
61
198076
1680
03:19
"Oh, God, I don't know what I'm doing here."
62
199756
2560
03:22
It's not that at all.
63
202876
1480
03:25
But the reason you might think that
64
205156
1960
03:27
is that they haven't told you the beginning of the story.
65
207116
2840
03:30
And the beginning of the story is what we need to understand
66
210996
3680
03:34
if we want to see what's stopping more people who aren't both white and male
67
214716
4600
03:39
from being successful when they take on leadership roles.
68
219316
4160
03:45
So, there's a piece of research from the University of Exeter.
69
225916
3120
03:49
They looked at FTSE 100 companies,
70
229076
2680
03:51
and when they appointed female leaders,
71
231796
3040
03:54
those businesses were much more likely than average
72
234876
2560
03:57
to have already been in a consistent period
73
237476
3200
04:00
of five months of poor performance.
74
240716
2800
04:04
And that poor performance can look like all kinds of things.
75
244636
2960
04:07
It could be a reputational scandal
76
247636
2720
04:10
where the tarnish is likely to be passed on to the new leader.
77
250356
3720
04:14
It could be a hit to market valuations or to profit.
78
254076
3280
04:17
But whatever that was,
79
257396
1440
04:18
these businesses were all much more likely than average
80
258876
3840
04:22
to have already been in a consistent period of poor performance
81
262756
5280
04:28
before that new leader was appointed.
82
268076
2760
04:32
And this isn't a single piece of research,
83
272636
2440
04:35
and it's not even limited to a single country.
84
275116
2560
04:38
Researchers at the University of Utah did a really similar thing,
85
278716
3440
04:42
but they didn't just look at the appointment of women.
86
282196
2920
04:45
They looked at the appointment of women and racially marginalized men.
87
285156
3360
04:49
And they looked at Fortune 500 companies over a 15-year period --
88
289396
4520
04:53
so, a huge data set --
89
293956
2400
04:56
and they found exactly the same.
90
296356
2080
04:59
Those businesses that appointed underrepresented leaders
91
299476
3480
05:02
were much more likely than average
92
302996
1840
05:04
to already be in a period of poor performance.
93
304836
3840
05:09
So maybe you're listening to this and you're thinking, "Well, so what?
94
309996
4400
05:14
So long as these people are getting an opportunity,
95
314436
2640
05:17
why does it matter if the businesses aren't in perfect condition
96
317116
3280
05:20
before these people arrive?"
97
320396
1600
05:23
Well, one of the reasons it matters
98
323396
1720
05:25
is the narrative that that pushes back to us.
99
325156
2320
05:28
If an underrepresented person takes on a role
100
328316
2920
05:31
and their chances of being successful are limited before they even begin,
101
331276
3640
05:35
if they do fail, if they do fall off that cliff,
102
335916
4080
05:40
the message that we get back is:
103
340036
1760
05:43
"Well, of course they did.
104
343196
1280
05:45
Someone like that -- that's not the right kind of person
105
345116
3680
05:48
to run a successful business."
106
348836
2520
05:51
And so that message compounds, and we just internalize it.
107
351996
3560
05:56
So I think all of this logically leads us to two questions,
108
356796
4240
06:01
the first of which is:
109
361076
2120
06:03
Why is this happening?
110
363196
1360
06:05
Why are businesses that are in trouble
111
365916
2560
06:08
more likely to appoint an underrepresented leader?
112
368516
3200
06:13
Well, it could be that, in patriarchal societies,
113
373916
3560
06:17
women are viewed as caregivers, as nurturers,
114
377516
3000
06:20
and so research has shown that when a business is in trouble,
115
380556
3640
06:24
women are often appointed to lead,
116
384236
1960
06:26
not for their ability to make transformational change,
117
386236
3520
06:29
but because of their perceived soft skills,
118
389796
2680
06:33
for their ability to reengage that workforce
119
393356
3160
06:36
and to get them back motivated again.
120
396556
2160
06:40
But importantly,
121
400556
1280
06:41
because she's not hired for her ability to make transformational change,
122
401836
4840
06:46
research shows that she's often not given the tools or the time necessary
123
406716
4320
06:51
to make that change.
124
411076
1400
06:53
And so her chances of falling off that cliff
125
413236
2760
06:56
are increased before she even begins
126
416036
2440
06:58
because of the limitations of the imaginations
127
418476
2720
07:01
of the people who have brought her in.
128
421196
2080
07:05
The second reason, to paraphrase Kristin Anderson,
129
425116
2960
07:08
who's a psychology professor at the University of Houston,
130
428116
2920
07:11
is that in business, women might be seen as more disposable, more expendable,
131
431796
6760
07:18
and that means they make really good scapegoats.
132
438556
2800
07:21
In that case, if your business isn't doing well,
133
441396
3440
07:24
bringing in a female leader could be a real win-win scenario.
134
444876
4680
07:30
If she comes in and is able to make that transformational change, then great,
135
450676
3720
07:34
your business is transformed.
136
454436
1520
07:36
But if she's not,
137
456636
1880
07:38
all of the blame is able to be put onto her shoulders,
138
458556
3280
07:41
and she's able to get pushed out of the business,
139
461836
2760
07:44
pushed over that cliff.
140
464636
1560
07:47
Importantly, the research then shows
141
467476
1880
07:49
that she's more likely than not to be replaced by a white man,
142
469356
3680
07:53
a move known as the "savior effect."
143
473076
2080
07:55
And that savior effect signals to us, to shareholders, investors, employees,
144
475796
4800
08:00
that the business is back in a safe pair of hands.
145
480636
3000
08:04
It’s back to business as usual.
146
484676
1760
08:07
And really importantly, that new white male safe pair of hands
147
487396
4000
08:11
is more likely to be given both the tools and the time necessary
148
491436
4520
08:15
to succeed where the underrepresented person has failed.
149
495956
4040
08:22
So up until now, we've been talking about what happens
150
502556
4880
08:27
when you are a racially marginalized person
151
507476
2480
08:29
or a woman.
152
509996
1440
08:32
But as I said, the majority of my work looks at Black women.
153
512236
3440
08:36
So what happens when we do take that more intersectional look,
154
516476
3760
08:40
when we think about the experiences of people
155
520236
2240
08:42
with not just one but two marginalized identities?
156
522516
3480
08:47
As you might imagine, it's not the best story.
157
527156
3080
08:51
If a new Black woman takes over the most senior role in the business --
158
531676
3960
08:55
board member, CEO --
159
535636
1960
08:57
we can safely assume two things.
160
537636
2080
09:00
The first thing that we can assume, as we've discussed,
161
540476
2680
09:03
is the business might not be in great shape.
162
543156
2320
09:06
And the second thing that we can assume
163
546556
1880
09:08
is that she's likely to be managing a large team of white men,
164
548476
3720
09:12
that leadership layer just below her,
165
552236
2440
09:14
her closest cohort.
166
554716
1480
09:17
And we can assume that because in 2019,
167
557116
2320
09:19
the Lean In Foundation reported that white men make up about 30 percent
168
559476
4320
09:23
of that entry-level junior cohort.
169
563796
2560
09:27
But by the time we get to the C-suite,
170
567116
1920
09:29
that's actually ballooned up to 68 percent.
171
569036
3240
09:33
That means white men are the only group whose representation grows
172
573356
4360
09:37
as they become more senior.
173
577756
1560
09:40
Or, to put it a different way:
174
580316
1800
09:42
they're the only group who experienced the opposite of the glass ceiling.
175
582156
4880
09:48
Instead of looking up and not being able to see themselves reflected back at all,
176
588276
4720
09:53
they look up and see nothing but themselves at the most senior levels.
177
593036
4720
09:58
That is, of course, until they don't,
178
598636
2160
10:00
until they have a new boss who's somebody like a Black woman.
179
600796
3160
10:05
And the reason this matters is there's research from the University of Texas
180
605556
3960
10:09
and the University of Michigan,
181
609556
1880
10:11
and they looked at what happens to that group of men
182
611476
2960
10:14
who are so used to seeing themselves directly mirrored back
183
614476
4240
10:18
when they get a new boss who doesn't mirror
184
618756
2280
10:21
both their whiteness and their maleness.
185
621036
2440
10:24
And what they found was amazing.
186
624356
1760
10:26
They found that as soon as they get a boss
187
626836
2040
10:28
who doesn't directly mirror them in both of those ways,
188
628876
2960
10:31
they report feeling less personally connected to the business,
189
631876
3920
10:35
less able to personally identify with it
190
635836
2800
10:38
and less personally invested in it.
191
638676
2280
10:42
And that means that their work performance suffered;
192
642316
2640
10:44
they did worse at their jobs.
193
644996
1640
10:47
Now, if a business is already in trouble,
194
647396
2960
10:50
even the greatest leader is not going to solve it single-handedly.
195
650396
4200
10:54
She needs her team, particularly her senior team.
196
654956
3680
10:59
And so if they've stopped doing their jobs properly,
197
659116
2840
11:01
all they're doing is continuing to push her towards the edge of that cliff.
198
661996
4280
11:07
The second thing that same piece of research found was that
199
667276
3400
11:12
they stopped doing a really important part of any manager's job,
200
672236
4440
11:16
and that's managing their teams.
201
676676
1800
11:18
They stopped developing, mentoring,
202
678516
2560
11:21
working with the people who was their job to take care of.
203
681116
4280
11:25
But they didn't stop doing that equally.
204
685956
2080
11:28
No, they mostly stopped helping, working with, developing
205
688076
3480
11:31
anyone in that team who was also racially marginalized.
206
691596
3520
11:35
And so in that way, the glass cliff bites twice.
207
695916
2640
11:40
We're not only pushing the existing leader closer to the edge of their cliff,
208
700476
4280
11:44
we're stopping what could be this new cohort of underrepresented leaders
209
704796
3520
11:48
from coming up,
210
708356
1440
11:49
because we're not giving them the same support, guidance, mentorship, development
211
709836
5720
11:55
that the rest of their colleagues are getting.
212
715596
2160
11:59
So I'm telling you this because I want you to be a part of making this change.
213
719076
4640
12:04
And that might sound impossible.
214
724476
1600
12:06
You might be thinking,
215
726076
1160
12:07
"Well, I can't change businesses or charities, governments,
216
727276
3160
12:10
any of the places where we see the glass cliff playing out."
217
730476
3040
12:14
But -- and stay with me for a second --
218
734036
2840
12:17
you can, because none of those things are real.
219
737636
3240
12:22
Businesses, government, charities -- all of these things
220
742676
2640
12:25
are just groups of people who've come together to do something.
221
745356
3160
12:29
And we're a group of people who have come together to do something,
222
749356
4360
12:33
and so we can make that change.
223
753756
2520
12:37
We can look at our own conscious and unconscious biases,
224
757196
3680
12:40
and we can decide that we see the value in all people all of the time,
225
760876
4440
12:45
not just some people,
226
765356
1720
12:47
when we have a problem that they might be able to solve,
227
767076
2640
12:49
or something that we might be able to blame them for.
228
769756
2640
12:54
So, as Angela Davis says,
229
774076
2200
12:56
we have to “... act as though [it’s possible to change] the world.
230
776316
3200
12:59
And you have to do it all of the time."
231
779516
2280
13:01
And so that's what I'm asking you to do.
232
781836
2360
13:04
I'm asking you to look at yourself
233
784196
2200
13:06
and to decide that you are not going to be part of pushing anybody else
234
786436
3920
13:10
closer towards the edge of their own cliff.
235
790396
2400
13:13
And I want you to know that I'm going to be right alongside you,
236
793476
3960
13:17
trying to do the same.
237
797436
2000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7