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| | | CEO transitions present a crucial opportunity for companies to support—and boost—gender diversity in leadership roles. Management reshuffles can serve as “unfreezing moments” to dramatically improve women’s representation at senior levels. Yet as the authors of this McKinsey Quarterly classic observe, CEOs often don’t take advantage of this window or opportunity. Why?
The stagnation at the top is often the result of two issues. First, diversity eventually hits a ceiling, the authors find. CEOs hired in industries with more diverse teams often don’t make as many gains on diversity as those in less diverse industries, and more diverse companies tend to become complacent over time. Second, CEOs who are hired externally are more susceptible to unconscious bias. This gives internally hired CEOs an edge—they already know where the talent is, which can help ward off the biases of other senior executives.
To make lasting progress in advancing gender diversity at the top, new CEOs can focus their efforts on a few critical areas, including clearly communicating the strategic imperative of a diverse top team, accelerating women’s advancement through the pipeline, and then ensuring that women are supported and helped to succeed. For more, read Carolyn Dewar, Kurt Strovink, and Michael Birshan’s 2018 classic, “Closing the gender gap: A missed opportunity for new CEOs.”
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| | | —Edited by Drew Holzfeind, editor, Chicago
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