Debunking myths about gender differences and leadership potential in 2019

By Ian MacRae and Karen Fox

Debunking myths about gender differences

Women make up 47% of the workforce in the UK, but have for lower representation at senior levels of leadership. Only 6.4% of those in the full-time executive roles in FTSE250 companies are women and 9.7% of executive directors are women.

Companies that have fair an equitable HR policies will have a competitive advantage. A report by McKinsey indicate that improving gender equality would increase GDP by 11% by 2025. That’s £11 trillion internationally and £189 billion in the UK. It would be overly optimistic to suggest this would happen in every country and every company. Which means better HR practice for women in the workforce and in leadership will offer a competitive advantage.

One of the best ways to address this is at the level of individual selection and development. Although some speculate that women have different personalities in general, or that women need different personality traits than men to get to senior leadership positions, there is no evidence to support this. In fact, recent research shows no significant differences in the personality traits of male and female leaders.

The discussion of gender difference and personality is important because personality traits are an excellent indicator of leadership potential, and personality assessment is often used in the selection, development and retention of leaders. The research indicates that there are as many high potential women that would succeed in a leadership position as there are men. Candidate lists rarely reflect this.

Personality and Leadership

Recent research from Thomas International with hundreds of senior leaders included 137 women in senior leadership roles (job titles ranging from Director to CEO/President) of companies with more than 100 employees.

The study used the High Potential Traits Inventory (HPTI) to examine six personality traits predictive of leadership performance. The results found no major differences between the personality of male and female senior leaders, and that overall that women were as statistically likely to have optimal personality traits for senior leadership as men.

Four of the six traits (Conscientiousness, Risk Approach, Ambiguity Acceptance and Competitiveness) showed no significant gender differences. There were slight differences found, with male leaders having slightly higher Adjustment and female leaders having slightly higher Curiosity on average. However, the overall research concluded that there were negligible personality differences between female and male leaders.

This is in important finding because it dispels the myth that women do not have some of the core traits of leadership success.

Personality and Perception

Another finding of the research was that although there were no significant gender differences in personality of the senior leaders, there were gender differences in the perception of those traits. For example, men with high Adjustment are more likely to be seen as resilient whereas women with the same high levels of Adjustment are seen as cold. Men with high curiosity may be seen as innovative while women can be seen as distractible. This is why rigorous and objective assessment of personality traits is so important, and so useful in hiring. It reduces the bias that typically comes with subjectively judging personality traits of women and men.

The research shows how useful objective personality assessment can be in reducing gender bias in selection and promotion. Using assessments to identify optimal levels of personality traits for senior leadership can reduce the tendency for personal judgement or bias to cloud the process. Of course, this is also why it is so important that HR are trained to use psychometric assessments effectively in the workplace.

Attracting and selecting women in leadership

The ensure the talent pool you are building has strong foundations, ask yourself (and others) three key questions to ask yourself before you start your recruitment process

1. Has a critical eye been cast over the job description(s) to check that they still accurately represent the role and that they do not contain any implicit gender biases?
2. Are you asking your recruitment consultancies to evidence how they attract diverse/select candidates for the role?
3. Do you request candidate feedback from those who are successful and those who are not?

Improving the objectivity of the selection criteria

Improvement of the basic processes in recruiting candidates is crucial to ensuring objectivity for making effective selection decisions. For instance, taking detailed notes and asking competency based questions. The evaluators and evaluation systems must be consistent for all candidates. It can be challenging to take detailed notes and to engage with the candidate so some who are responsible for selection find that it is much easier to alternate asking questions and scribing or have an allocated note taker. This will ensure you have captured an accurate representation of the candidate’s skills and experience, and it will safeguard your company from a legislative standpoint.

In the UK candidates are legally entitled to request access to what has been written on them in a recruitment process. It is important to ask yourself and others you may interview with, is the decision legally defensible based on the notes against the core criteria of the role? The answer should be yes to meet legal requirements as well as good HR practice. However  many businesses still do not meet these basic legal requirements. There is a significant room for improvement here, which can improve selection decision-making. This record-keeping is even more important when hiring for more senior positions when it can be more challenging to fairly assess the candidates.

It’s always useful to revisit the HR basics. Take time to seriously read the job description and application information. The candidate has taken time to prepare so should the hiring managers. Recruitment is a two way evaluation and a marketing opportunity for a customer or future employee. Even if a candidate is not selected, when the processes is managed well and fairly, the candidates can complete the processes feeling that they have been treated fairly. Word travels quickly, so if there is bias in the recruiting process it will make others less likely to apply in future, reducing the potential talent pool.

Key lessons:

1. It is critically important to ensure the foundations and basic processes enable all candidates to apply and the best ones to succeed
2. Always provide clear and consistent messaging of the expectations for all those involved in recruitment processes and hold them to account if they do not meet these
3. Remember that even the most stringent and job-relevant psychometric tools are still only as good as the interpretation of them so ensure only those trained to administer them get to explain the results
4. While the war for talent in leadership goes on, recruiting women in leadership will offer a strategic advantage to companies that make it a priority.

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