3 Ways To Make Your Gender 'Business Case' Compelling

“We’ll invite the CFO, who is our most senior woman, to present our gender balance initiative at our next Top Leadership Forum,” an enthusiastic CEO told me recently. I suggested that this might actually be as counterproductive as it was well-meaning. Many executives make the same assumption. They think showcasing successful women is the most powerful way of communicating the benefits of gender balance. Not necessarily, or at least not sufficient. If you really want to get a broad population of managers constructively engaged, many of whom will be wondering how this affects their own job prospects, being tactical about selling the idea is a crucial step.

Who Sells The Message Is The Message

If you want the message sold convincingly, and get men as well as women to buy it, it needs to come from someone that everyone finds credible. The CEO first and foremost. In all our work and audits, if the CEO is not visibly and actively engaged in the gender strategy, executives immediately downgrade the priority and perceive the initiative as non-crucial. The money you spend on gender issues without visible support from the top ends up not only not moving the needle, it makes everyone cynical about the company’s commitment.

Getting senior women to lead the call to gender balance often backfires unintentionally. Over and over, in confidential interviews, we then hear that this is perceived by many men as though she is arguing in her own interest, or for her "side." Getting men to sell gender balance (at least where the current ratios lean in their favor) makes it seem less personal.

Seniority and role of the "seller" is also key. If your business case argues a business benefit to balance, you will need business leaders pitching that message, not HR or diversity heads. Getting key ‘movers and shakers’ who are widely respected as business leaders, adds to the power of persuasion. Conversely, if the only people arguing for balance are HR leaders, the subject itself becomes framed as an HR issue to be solved, rather than a business opportunity to be seized.

And the CEO is not enough. One client of ours had a very vocal and involved CEO, but the rest of his team never addressed the topic. This made it seem as though this was the CEO’s personal belief but not that it was a priority for the business. Key leaders from across the business need to be aligned on a clear summary of why the company aims to build gender balance and what benefits they seek to win. Make the case come alive with real data and success stories from within the company.

Tip For Companies: Get senior business leaders to sell the business case, with at least as many men as women, in ratios resembling those of your leadership teams. Have them focus on the benefits of balance, and how it ties directly into the company’s other strategic goals. Cover the customer angle, as well as the talent angle, it is more urgent.

Tip For Managers: Get really skilled at pitching the case for balance, and work to balance your own team, and to connect well with gender-balanced customers. If you are in a company seeking to balance, it makes you come across as a smart, progressive leader, good at engaging 21st century talent and markets.

Where And When It’s Communicated – Context Is Everything

Where companies place communications about gender balance speaks almost more loudly than the actual content of what is said. Most of our clients have a natural default to putting it into presentations about the "people" side of the business, as there is a strong tendency to see the HR side of the topic more than the customer side, especially if it is managed by HR. Make sure it’s included in presentations by key business leaders responsible for sales and marketing if you want to build awareness about the market opportunities of balance.

Placing it, consistently and regularly, in strategic parts of key management meetings/ intranet sites/ employee forums is a way to ensure that it becomes perceived as a strategic issue. Bundling it with other business issues makes it clear that it is on the ‘top 10’ agenda. Not having it there makes it clear that a company isn’t too serious about change.

Tip For Companies: Make sure gender is bundled in leadership and management conferences with other priority business issues. Make sure it is similarly positioned on the intranet site, with visible video interviews of key business leaders explaining why.

Tip For Managers: To make gender a business priority like any other, frame it like any other. Regularly integrate the topic into your management communications and in team discussions, share and illustrate the business benefits of balance.

Claiming Accountability Is Crucial

Getting leaders to say that they are personally accountable for gender balance is powerful. Much better than the more commonly used ‘champion’ of change. When management is evaluated on their ability to balance their businesses, it helps to say so. Set clear goals, measure and track progress regularly. You don’t need to communicate targets and progress to anyone but the people who are accountable. The executive team, in particular, needs clear targets.

Companies are often too quick to publish unattainable gender targets, often under external pressure. This unlocks a Pandora’s Box of expectations which, if unmet, can lead to unnecessary frustration from men and women alike. Make sure targets are realistic and achievable, integrating actual turnover and employment growth figures. Include them in the business performance scorecard with other priorities. Showcase managers’ successes in building balanced teams and achieving success in the market with innovative gender insights. Have managers explain how they did it and what benefits they derived from the change, and visibly reward and recognize people who make progress.

It also helps to recognize that balance is a two-way street, which means female-dominated areas (typically HR, marketing or communications) are also measured on their ability to balance, not just the male-dominated ones.

Tip For Companies: Set achievable targets with accountability that lies with the people who have the power to influence change. Have them communicate this accountability and commit to it.

Tips For Managers: Own the gender balance of your own team. Push for gender-balanced hiring, promotion and development opportunities. Challenge colleagues and sub-contractors who don’t push in parallel.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is the CEO of 20-first, a global gender consultancy.