CORPORATE
MENTORING: SHATTERING THE GLASS CEILING
By WILLIAM J. HEERY., Partner Harris Heery & Associates
"Members wanted to join a club for important and influential
decision-makers. Membership brings high visibility, good possibility of
future
employment and numerous perks and benefits. No women or minorities need
apply."
If
you are
like most of us, this ad should offend your sensibilities and your
reaction is
probably that something like this could never happen in 1993.
Unfortunately, it
is a condition which still affects corporate America. The constituency
of
management, for the most part, remains a private club for white males.
Eliminating
the Glass Ceiling
What is most surprising is that if you examine the ranks of middle
management,
the numbers of women and minorities are at an all time high. In most
consumer
product companies, women represent the predominant group in their
marketing
department and virtually every company has some form of aggressive
minority
recruiting program. These individuals are well educated and recruited
from some
of the country's best MBA programs. They work hard and aspire for the
same
success everyone does. Everyday they play a significant role in the
process of
their organization. Yet their absence from meaningful senior level
decision-making positions - the glass ceiling as it has come to be
known - is
nothing new. Everyone agrees this invisible barrier exists, but the
question
remains how to best eliminate this barrier.
The
answer,
we believe, lies less in conscious racism or sexism, but rather in a
flaw in
the entire process of mentoring - perhaps the primary vehicle for
movement into
senior management. As mentoring has traditionally occurred, a
senior-level
executive identifies with and, in a way, adopts a promising junior
within the
company (He reminds me of me) and takes him under his wing. This
mentoring
takes the form of guidance, counsel and, in many cases, access and
exposure to
the kinds of positions and assignments that allow the desired
management skills
to develop. It is essentially, an assisted evolution, preparing the
anointed
for eventual club membership in the senior ranks.
Women
and
minorities have not benefited from this kind of mentoring for two
reasons:
Few senior
white executives have identified personally with minorities in the
middle
management group of their company. They fail to see a reflection of
themselves
in these individuals. In many cases, the problem is exacerbated because
the
senior manager doesn't have a great number of minorities (if any) in
his sphere
of social acquaintances.
The issue
with women is different, but results in the same net effect. A senior
executive
is often concerned that the mentoring of a younger female might be
viewed as
having a less noble motive than the promotion of a capable person with
great
potential. It leaves the well-intentioned executive open to more
questioning
and scrutiny than is comfortable. "Why", asks the person,
"should I endure the jokes, innuendoes or the appearance of
impropriety,
either a home or at the office." "When in doubt," he says,
"don't."
Corporate
Mentoring Programs
Mentoring will always be an important avenue to the executive suite but
the
rules of the game must be changed if women and minority men are to be
included.
If a company is truly serious about developing diversity within its
management
corps, mentoring must be taken out of the hands of the individual
executive and
made part of a planned and thoughtful program that accomplishes the
long-term
goal. In short, corporate mentoring. Under a corporate mentoring
program,
extremely high potential individuals are recruited with the expressed
purpose
of joining this program.
They
will
understand that they will be provided with the exposures and
developmental
assignments to prepare them for senior management. Their itineraries
will
represent the experiences most valued by the company and will help to
have
those skills prized most at the executive level. The path at each
company may
be different. In some organizations, a tour of duty internationally
will be an
important credential; in others, sales or operational assignments are a
prerequisite to upward movement.
The
program, directed by a committee of the corporation's most senior
management,
will select the participants and structure the itinerary. The
participating
individual is expected to perform to their potential in each assignment
to
continuously validate their participation. It is a tacit contract
between the
corporation and the participant - "You perform and we'll manage your
development into our senior ranks."
As
to be
expected, there will be attrition in each group, as certain individuals
either
are unable to meet the performing requirements at a given level or are
no
longer willing to accept the rigors and demands that the program will
impose on
them professionally and personally. The corporation always has the
option of
reassigning this person to a position to commensurate with their
abilities and
interests and allow them to develop in a traditional way.
Broadening
the Executive Group
Conversely, the corporation has the option of adding individuals to the
program
who have joined the organization in other ways and demonstrated that
they merit
inclusion. Corporate mentoring programs are not meant to be
exclusionary but
rather to broaden and diversify the upward based future executive
group. There
are several advantages to mentoring programs beyond the primary goal of
bringing women and minorities into senior executive management roles.
It
removes
some of the politics and charges of individual favoritism that can be
debilitating to an organization. It should as well ease the difficulty
of
succession planning by developing a pool of well qualified individuals
for the
company to consider.
It
removed
the stigma that can occur if a single mentor's chosen protege fails to
live up
to expectations. Because a committee of senior executives is involved
in the
selection and shares in the periodic evaluation, there is broader
authorship of
each participant.
It
becomes
a powerful recruiting tool to attract highest potential individuals -
"the
best and the brightest" - from the graduate business school campus or
from
within industry. Corporate mentoring programs also serve a defensive
purpose.
It will allow companies to retain more high performance people because
the
individual will have less uncertainty about their future with the
company.
These individuals should therefore be more resistant to outside
executive
recruiting where the reward may be less apparent and the risk may be
far
greater.
There are
several key elements that will ensure a successful corporate mentoring
program
as I outlined in the following four points:
The program
must be sanctioned by and directed from the highest management level to
have
credibility within the organization. This will make certain the program
stays
on track and isn't diffused or sabotaged. Not everyone in the
organization will
support the notion that a select group should move through the system
on a
special track. Management must support the program but also realize
that
inclusion into this select group can be earned by other employee
outstanding
performance.
In the case
of minority participation, this should not be viewed as an affirmative
action
program where standards are often lowered to accommodate numerical
goals.
Instead, these participants should be selected on the basis of
extremely high
potential and ability. Remember, the goal here is the executive suite
and not a
soft, but highly visible management position.
There
should be regular monitoring and evaluation of the program and it's
participants. And a continued social interaction. This is particularly
important in order to maintain the priority of the program, but also to
continually identify and reinforce senior level expectations to the
participants.
In this way, corporate values and goals are communicated and continued.
The
programs must be viewed as a long-term effort that pays dividends over
time.
The
idea of
corporate mentoring is based on the idea that if you ask any CEO about
their
career most will tell you that while they certainly worked hard to get
where
they are today, there were also one or two instrumental people in
helping pull
that individual through the company system. But the traditional
mentoring
system, even where it still exists, is a stacked deck against women and
minorities