THE RIGHT STUFF TEST

The right stuff test determines whether a woman will be acknowledged as the right person for the job. All the tests are in some sense tests of legitimacy and credibility. But this test is really about convincing people that you have what it takes to be a leader. For women establishing credibility can be an uphill campaign.

Fictitious-resume studies reveal that men and women with the exact same experiences and skills are judged differently ”to the detriment of women. ^{[ 35]} Yet recent large-scale surveys clearly show that women have the right stuff when it comes to leadership skills. ^{[ 36]} They equal or surpass male colleagues across a wide range of interpersonal measures ”motivating groups, giving feedback, and accessibility. But they also score high in performance measures that weigh their contributions to the bottom line.

This research challenges the assumption that women do not have the right mix of skills to be effective leaders . Even though women share similar skill sets with their male colleagues and even outshine them on some, participants in these same studies rank women low on leadership potential.

The disconnect between skill sets and perception means that even if a woman has performed as a leader in the past, she does not necessarily come to a new role cloaked in an aura of credibility. Her commitment can be questioned. After twenty-three years on the front lines at Kraft Foods, Ann Fudge took a sabbatical to recharge. "It meant rising to do yoga instead of racing to work, reading books about moving the soul instead of moving products." ^{[ 37]} Then she was recruited to run Young and Rubicam. Instead of being delighted at the prospect of a refreshed chief executive, critics wondered whether she was tough enough. Could "a woman who openly hugs fellow execs and values her life beyond the workplace raise Y&R to new creative and financial heights?" As one senior executive put it, "I just don't know if someone who can spend months on a bicycle has the 24/7 drive we need." ^{[ 38]}

It may also be more difficult to judge whether a woman has the right stuff because her accomplishments are often less visible. The number of women in senior management positions has doubled since 1995. Despite evident progress, women still hold less than 10 percent of the line positions at the corporate officer level. Without P&L responsibility, their contributions can be difficult to measure and often hinge on subjective judgments about the new leader's effectiveness. ^{[ 39]}

Influence and credibility remain tightly linked to visibility and not all women appointed to prime positions enjoy instant recognition. Nor can they always point to past successes that others in the organization can easily identify. Relational work ” preventing crises from occurring, team building, and coaching ”can disappear from notice when practiced by women until it becomes invisible. ^{[ 40]} As Joyce Fletcher has demonstrated, this "invisible work" often contributes greatly to performance, but its direct impact is difficult to trace and even more difficult to measure. As a result, women leaders can be trapped in a paradox: Their leadership styles may be just what the new theories recommend ”collaborative, committed to mutual empowerment, and open to inquiry and learning. In practice, however, "process skills" may not weigh heavily in tallying a woman's ability to lead. Although those same skills can add to a male colleague's presumed capacity to lead, they may not count for a woman ”they are something that women practice naturally ” "women's work."

Even when women's work is visible, it does not necessarily command credibility. A White House Project study, updated after 9/11, revealed that when Sunday morning talk show hosts want authoritative voices, they turn to male guests ”by a ratio of 13:1. ^{[ 41]} Even though women head the top three Senate subcommittees on terrorism, they are not usually first on the hosts' lists. And a woman's prominence can trigger a backlash . Fiorina, explicitly drafted by the HP board to shake things up, found herself targeted , on one hand, for being too brash and aggressive ”with the former CEO charging her with moving too quickly. On the other hand, her failure to produce an instant turnaround drew caustic criticism. After a string of disappointing quarterly results, the business press did not draw comparisons with the performance of other technology companies at a time of plummeting IT sales and earnings. They looked for a visible woman ”and found one in the toy business. Jill Barad's inability to deliver ended in her ouster as CEO at Mattel. Would Fiorina soon follow? Maybe her two decades in sales and marketing at AT&T and then the spin-off of Lucent in a successful IPO were not the right stuff after all. ^{[ 42]}

When questions are raised about whether a woman leader has the right stuff, she can find her every action scrutinized. To pass the right stuff test, she has to prove her worth early and often. Meg Whitman's "down-to-earth" management style, for example, is so "low key" and eBay's operations run so smoothly that observers sometimes have trouble pinpointing what leadership is doing. ^{[ 43]} Whitman, however, has discovered the knack of making her relational work visible. Scott McNeely, CEO of Sun Microsystems, worked closely with Whitman when eBay's site crashed and talks about her "velvet glove touch." "Instead of making me angry , she made me want to do just about anything we could to solve her problem." ^{[ 44]} Getting eBay back online was proof positive that the "velvet touch" worked.

All new leaders face tests. The ones we have outlined are triggered by gender and are reserved especially for women. There are perhaps fewer examples of overt discrimination today. But the dwindling of blatant bias can create a false sense of optimism . Some women may have become inured to the testing. Others may consider the battle won. And many of the attitudes behind these tests are so embedded in the fabric of organizational cultures and practices that people ”men and women ” can be unaware of their continued potency.

It is important for women leaders to recognize these second-generation gender effects when they take on demanding and visible new assignments. ^{[ 45]} The tests can be insidious on two fronts: They undercut a new leader's authority with others and they undermine her self-confidence as she establishes her place at the leadership table. ^{[ 46]} Little differences compound when there is a lot at stake ”as there is in any leadership position. ^{[ 47]}

In this book we chart how women leaders ”people who may not make the headlines but are making real differences in their organizations ”confront these tests. We interviewed more than a hundred women. The group was evenly divided between women embarking on their first leadership positions and those who were assuming assignments with increased responsibility. Our sample was by no means scientific. It was, however, diverse in age, geography and ethnicity . The majority of the women we interviewed held line positions or were moving into key staff jobs after significant experience on the line. They covered the spectrum of opportunities ”small companies, large corporations, foundations. They came from the public and the private sectors. The highest concentration was in professional services (including consulting, accounting, and law), health care, finance, and technology, where software sales and marketing and biotechnology predominated.

Whatever the individual commentator's expertise or organizational affiliation , they all experienced intense scrutiny. With or without established track records, they had to "prove up." Their place at the table had to be earned with each new assignment. As they went about this project, they had to negotiate five key challenges critical to their ability to lead.

• Intelligence: Good information leads to informed decisions. Our commentators wanted to know exactly what they would be up against ”whether they had better than even odds of success. They explored expectations and points of possible resistance. They discovered what elements they would have to negotiate beforehand to hit the ground running.

• Backing of key players: Our commentators recognized that passing these tests was not something they could do alone. They deliberately negotiated for the backing of key players. This support eased their introduction and paved the way for their agendas ”and them ”to be accepted.

• Resources: Our respondents recognized that resources are a currency of business. Their credibility depended on them and they negotiated allocation issues hard. If budget pressures prevented them from getting the allocations they thought necessary, they worked to adjust expectations to align with the resources available.

• Buy-in: To create momentum behind their agendas, our commentators tried to show peers and reports alike that they had a stake in those agendas and that it was safe for them to take the risk. They listened hard and responded to concerns as they worked to solve problems and enlisted support for their efforts.

• Making a difference: All of our commentators wanted to make a difference in their organizations. But first their contributions had to be recognized. Once the value they created was visible to others, it provided a platform to build on ”within their own teams and across the organization.

In structuring this book we have devoted a chapter to each of the five challenges. After exploring some of the traps that can catch the unwary, we lay out a set of strategic moves that successful leaders use to respond to the challenge. To illustrate these moves we draw on our interviews with women leaders. They provide real-life examples of the strategies at work. Each chapter is anchored by an ongoing case that shows how the strategic moves can be employed over time and in concert. Finally, we provide a guide to help you get ready to meet your own challenges.

The stories in this book carry substantial lessons for anyone ”male or female ”trying to puzzle through the changing landscape of today's organizations. They also have significant meaning for organizations committed to moving women into leadership positions. Potential leaders must be tested to see whether they can take on greater responsibility. But it is critical that top management realize the part that visible support plays in the process of "proving up." Change usually makes someone uncomfortable. A new boss almost inevitably does. Paradoxically, purposeful change ”which most new leaders are charged with achieving ”can only take place in environments where the participants, including the leaders, feel both safe and challenged.

Our commentators had a good idea of where they wanted to go when they took on new leadership roles. But they remained flexible on the ways of getting there. Often the game plan evolved as they drew others ”top management, peers, and reports alike ”into a dialogue. In significant ways the stories of our commentators demonstrate the importance of relational work ”soliciting different perspectives, inviting others to join the decision-making process, but articulating the end goal. What started out as their initial problem ”the target of their change agendas ”became a collective enterprise. And that earned them a place at the leadership table.

^{[ 35]} Valian, Why So Slow?

^{[ 36]} Robert Kabacoff, Gender and Leadership in the Corporate Boardroom ; for a review of these studies, see Deborah Merrill-Sands and Deborah Kolb, "Women as Leaders: The Paradox of Success."

^{[ 37]} Diane Brady, "Act II," p. 73.

^{[ 38]} Brady, "Act II," p. 74.

^{[ 39]} Tyson, "Glass Ceiling: What Holds Women Back?"; Carol Hymowitz, "In the Lead: Women Put Noses to the Grindstone, and Miss Opportunities."

^{[ 40]} Joyce Fletcher, Disappearing Acts .

^{[ 41]} "Powerful Women, Powerful Message."

^{[ 42]} Peter Burrows, Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard ; Eric Nee, "Hewlett-Packard: Open Season on Carly Fiorina."

^{[ 43]} "Meet eBay's Auctioneer-in-Chief."

^{[ 44]} Loren Fox, "Meg Whitman."

^{[ 45]} Susan Sturm, "Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach."

^{[ 46]} Kathy E. Kram and Marion McCollom Hampton, "When Women Lead: The Visibility-Vulnerability Spiral."

^{[ 47]} Eagly and Carli, "The Female Leadership Advantage."