We’ve seen major change in SA in recent years when it comes to gender equality. But it remains surprising that the boardrooms of SA’s blue-chip companies still stubbornly evolve at a snail’s pace when it comes to equality for women. In a constitutional democracy in 2016, it shouldn’t be like this.
While women are increasingly respected as professionals, very few hold leadership roles. This is despite legislation which should have changed this scenario.
It’s all the more surprising, given that the international research shows that companies with proper gender diversity on their boards outperform the others which don’t.
There’s a clear reason why this should be so. Companies benefit from women’s fresh perspectives through understanding their customers better, and most of these customers are, by implication, women. This means companies with better gender representativity are sharper, and make better decisions.
Given the imperative for transformation, as well as the skills shortage in the workplace, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to actively promote the advancement of women.
But the relatively low representation of women on SA corporate boards is evidence that not all available skills and talents are being used efficiently to create the best leadership outcome.
Directors are customarily chosen for their business, personal or political ties. It is a fact that in SA the political and economic leadership come from different ideologies. So in the process of transforming the old economy designed around a minority, the business sector now offers opportunities to the “well-connected” and networked people who have influence with the political leadership to gain political favour.
It’s crucial, because if you don’t have the clout with SA’s political leadership, you’ll find many doors shut to you.
There is a view that women would be far better represented in boardrooms if they simply networked more with other business leaders. Obviously, networks are critical for corporate success as they can provide access to particular information, opportunities for collaboration, visibility and upward mobility.
Research conducted by my company, Busara Leadership Partners, found that men are typically better at passing on business leads than women.
It may seem a surprising finding, but it seems to stem from the fact that men treat their networks as business opportunities, whereas women tend to focus on the social aspects. In other words, men tend to be more upfront about their commercial needs, while women are coy and not outspoken about the business exchanges they would want to benefit from in the relationship.
Great networkers build their social capital gradually and over a lifetime — helping whoever they can because one never knows who may one day be in a position to help them.
The old cliché, trotted out frequently, is that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.
Now, obviously it is important to work hard at your endeavour of choice — the “what you know” aspect.
But the reality is that nowadays, it isn’t enough to maximise one’s potential. A business leader’s value today also depends on what they can do for people.
It may seem like a fuzzy concept, but the purpose of networking is to have a diverse group of contacts who will be willing to offer that help to you when you ask.
So how could we go about improving gender representivity? One option is mandatory quotas — but this shouldn’t be necessary to change gender representation in the boardroom.
Companies should do it themselves, recognising that in any organisation, the board must provide a wide range of skills, experience and gender representivity to properly provide the backbone to allow the company to meet its goals.
• Msomi is the CEO of Busara Leadership Partners
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