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The Diversity Dividend: How Balancing Your Leadership Team Can Pay Off

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The call for greater diversity at senior leadership levels is not new, although it has itself become more inclusive, extending beyond gender, race and ethnicity, to encompass age, education, socioeconomic background and sexual orientation, as well as experience, skills and talent.

It is also not news that diversifying leadership teams can pay financial dividends for corporations. As early as 2004, research by Catalyst, Inc. showed a significant positive correlation between financial performance and female representation at the executive leveli with female Board representation having an even stronger effect.

Most recently, a new international study by McKinsey & Co.ii showed that companies with gender diverse leadership are 15% more likely to report financial returns above their national industry median, while those with ethnically diverse leadership were 35% more likely to have financial returns that outpace their industry. Sadly, none of the 366 public companies surveyed stood out as leaders on both gender and ethnic diversity axis together.

In spite of the long-established case for balancing executive teams, the C-Suite has remained stubbornly homogeneous. Only 4.6% of chief executives of S&P 500 companies are women, and there are just six black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies currently.iii Progress has been made, but slowly and inconsistently. In their recent study mentioned above, for example, McKinsey & Co. notes that women now represent about 16% of executive teams in U.S. companies overall, calling that “measurable progress” but acknowledging that women remain underrepresented at senior levels globally.

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About the Author

Kim VilleneuveDr. Kim Villeneuve is CEO of Centerstone Executive Search and Consulting, a nationally retained firm serving the consumer sector. Centerstone specializes in executive search and leadership consulting concentrated at the Board Director and Executive Officer level. Kim is also a coach for elite executives, an adjunct professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business, and guest lecturer at The George Washington University, from which she holds a doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning. Contact Kim at [email protected] or at 425-836-8445.

References

i. “The Bottom Line: Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity” January 15, 2004 Catalyst, Inc.
ii. “Why Diversity Matters” By Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince McKinsey, & Co. January 2015
iii. “Is there a diversity dividend?” Linda Yueh, Chief Business Correspondent, BBC News January 25, 2015 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30973184
iv. World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, January 2015 http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2015/sessions/diversity-dividend

Common Business Performance Opportunities

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In today’s hyper competitive marketplace, no leader can afford to see his or her organization’s performance remain stagnant or, worse yet, decline. It’s become an imperative as well as a customer expectation that your company’s performance continually improve no matter what business you’re in.

Yet it can be exceedingly difficult for a business leader to pinpoint the performance improvement opportunities enabling his or her organization to achieve its fullest potential.

At StrategyDriven, we’ve had the privilege of helping leading companies around the world improve their performance. Based on this experience, we’ve identified several common performance improvement opportunities associated with the organizational, process, and technology areas that you can look for and implement within your organization to improve overall performance.

Our Common Business Performance Opportunities video explores the organization, process, and technology challenges frequently preventing the achievement of superior business performance.

Business Performance Assessment Programs play a key role in the identification of value-adding performance improvement opportunities that will keep your company on top. If you don’t have such a program or are looking for ways to improve the value of your business performance assessments, register for StrategyDriven’ FREE Maximizing the Value of Business Performance Assessments video series. In this free, five part video tutorial, we’ll show you how to optimally synthesize your organization’s data into actionable performance improvement information.

Register for StrategyDriven’s FREE Maximizing the Value of Business Performance Assessments online training series

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

4 Beliefs that Lead to Bad Decisions

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All great leaders have one thing in common – they know how to make great decisions. But many people find making great decisions difficult because of common yet avoidable pitfalls. These pitfalls are caused by wrongly held beliefs. Here are 4 assumptions that can get in the way of making great decisions.

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About the Author

Don MaruskaDon Maruska founded and was CEO of three Silicon Valley companies and venture investor in startups that became public companies. He’s now a Master Certified Coach and author of How Great Decisions Get Made with Foreword by Margaret Wheatley (American Management Association, 2004) and co-author with Jay Perry of Take Charge of Your Talent: Three Keys to Thriving in Your Career, Organization, and Life with Foreword by Jim Kouzes (Berrett-Koehler 2013) serving high-growth firms and Fortune 500 companies. He earned his BA magna cum laude from Harvard and his MBA and JD from Stanford and previously led projects for McKinsey & Company.

Change Leadership: Overcoming Change Fatigue and Organizational Burnout

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For any business, large or small, corporate change is critical for survival. Unfortunately, though, many of us are juggling multiple change initiatives simultaneously. Not only that, but 70% of changes fail – contributing to the exhaustion both individuals and organizations are experiencing. So, how can we avoid change fatigue and organizational burnout while still moving our companies forward?

Here are three success principles that will help you navigate this frenzy of activity and build the ongoing capabilities required for continuous evolution:

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About the Authors

Lisa HillenbrandEllen R. AusterEllen R. Auster and Lisa Hillenbrand are the authors of authors of Stragility: Excelling at Strategic Changes (Rotman-UTP Publishing). Auster is Professor of Strategic Management and the Founding Director of the Schulich Centre for Teaching Excellence at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Hillenbrand is the founder of Lisa Hillenbrand & Associates, and previously served as Global Marketing Director at Procter & Gamble.

Becoming a Smarter Leader

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One of the traits that often come to mind when people describe leaders is intellect. A leader is expected to be smart. But being smart shouldn’t be a static condition – there are always opportunities to expand your knowledge base. Here are a few ideas of ways to not only become smarter, but to become a more effective leader at the same time.

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About the Author

Marie PeelerMarie Peeler is the principal of Peeler Associates, a Pembroke, Mass.-based organization that helps leaders enhance their leadership effectiveness, focus on what’s most important, and achieve their goals. Believing that growth is vital in maintaining and increasing leadership effectiveness – growth of individual leaders, growth of leadership teams, and growth of organizations – Marie helps leaders grow through executive coaching, team building, organizational development, leadership training, business retreats, and keynote speaking. For more information, please visit www.peelerassociates.com.