Following the piece I wrote last week on the 16 competencies that leaders possess, I have been asked a number of times why it is that women were weaker than men on the ‘develops a strategic perspective’ competency.
In order to understand why, we need to wrap our minds around what developing a strategic perspective is. It’s more than just an ability to think outside the square, although that certainly helps. Having a strategic perspective is about looking at the whole business within the context of key factors like market opportunity, competitive advantage and resourcing.
Women are generally highly skilled at problem-solving. We get things done. We are great fixers. The argument with regard to the competency scale is that we are better at getting on with the job than talking about the nature of the job.
How many times have you sat in a management meeting or board meeting and listened to the difference in the way that men and women frame the conversation? I do it all the time. (I blame my MBA studies for this.) At the risk of over-generalising the argument, in my 25 years of management experience I have found that men will primarily discuss the what and why while women focus on the how.
One of the reasons I believe this happens is the gender imbalance in those meetings. After a couple of hours of half a dozen men sharing their knowledge of the market in a competitive fashion, it’s often the one or two women in the room who feel the need to re-focus on the pressing issue at hand — Rome is burning and we need to put out the fire.
The other reason, of course, is that most females in the leadership pipeline are in operational roles and therefore the greater part of their job is to solve the problem, rather than contemplate how it may relate to industry forces.
I love a solid strategy session as much as the next person – it’s why I am energised by my board work. But I have been in one too many executive meetings where we have solved the problems of the entire industry but not how we’re going to get to budget this year. If the how wasn’t regularly left to the female doers to do than maybe we would have more opportunity to showcase our strategic perspective.
The results of that study, though, highlight a clear path forward for women aspiring to leadership roles. Make more of an effort to showcase your strategic perspective. It may be only one of 16 competencies that Boards look for in leaders, but it may be the most important one. Switch off that part of your brain that wants to present a solution off the bat and begin with the why. Talk about the market opportunities, competitors, changing needs of the consumer, competitive advantage, internal resourcing. Don’t be afraid to show-off your expertise, industry insights and contacts. It’s what makes many men appear more impressive than some of them really are and we can learn from that.