Conquering the Glass Cliff

Edith Carmichael, Director of Search at Freshminds

Most leaders would like to think of themselves as “bias-free” – open to each and every applicant, and taking a fair and individual approach to hiring processes. When it comes to hiring senior leaders within a business, creating a diverse Board or Executive Committee has never been more important. But where do people slip up? Can your leadership team conquer the glass cliff?

It’s important to understand some of the factors which can ultimately inhibit hiring decision-makers from building and retaining a diverse team.

We are all prone to exercising implicit leadership theories. These are the cognitive structures that dictate what we expect from leadership, including stereotypical traits, skills, and behaviours that are pertinent to a particular position, context, or individual.

Most commonly discussed of these are our expectations and lived experience of gender or cultural norms that feed into our narratives around what ‘successful’ leadership should or does look like.

That, twinned with similarity attraction bias, our subconscious leaning towards individuals that are most like us, makes it difficult for organisations to challenge and disrupt the status quo and to build and retain a diverse leadership team.

We would hope that most organisations now understand the benefits of having a diverse workforce. (If not, please read more from Freshminds here.)

How do gender ‘norms’ come into effect?

Differences in perceived masculine and feminine characteristics have an impact on what different people consider to be effective.

Feminine characteristics are often categorised as gentle, helpful, interpersonally sensitive, nurturing, and affectionate. Within organisations, this can translate into behaviours that include acceptance of others’ guidance and avoiding drawing attention to oneself.

On the other hand, masculine characteristics are often described as dominant, competitive, and assertive. This juxtaposition can make it challenging for women to gain access to leadership positions.

There is, therefore, an incongruity between female roles and what is commonly perceived as a ‘typical leader’, which can lead to less favourable outcomes for female executives, both in the form of potential for leadership and evaluation of leadership behaviour.

What is the glass cliff?

The term ‘glass cliff’ references the fact that women tend to be over-represented in risky leadership positions. In practice, this means that when a company’s performance is declining, women are more likely to be appointed to leadership positions.

On one hand, the perception that women are more suitable for handling crises or that they hold attributes which make them more successful in the role is reassuring. However, it indicates that it is more likely for a special circumstance to be required for women to enter leadership positions, which is inequitable to male peers.

The other effect of the glass cliff is that women may not receive the support, backing, and resources they need in order to turn around a failing company or succeed in a tricky project. Then they may receive a disproportionate amount of blame for what is an inevitably poor performance. The glass cliff, essentially, sets women up for failure in leadership positions.

In the UK, women constitute 42% of board positions in the FTSE 350, however, there are only 10 in FTSE 100 CEO positions. Furthermore, the Office for National Statistics reported that women remain at a disadvantage in pay than men, suggesting a 7.7% gap in 2023.

Several research and literature reviews have found that organisations with gender-diverse boards were notably inclusive. Having women on boards is positively associated with accounting measures of the firm’s performance. Organisations such as B Corp positively award businesses for having a diverse board and directorship make-up.

Who has stood on the ‘glass cliff’?

There are plenty of examples of the ‘glass cliff’ phenomenon. From a political perspective, Liz Truss was voted in at a time when the Conservative Party was losing support, credibility and numbers. More recently, while Kamala Harris had a low profile as Vice President, once President Biden formally stepped back she was propelled into the spotlight to shore up the Democrat campaign. Arguably, she would have had more of an advantage in challenging Trump with more time. History will tell how her campaign progresses.

Other examples include Linda Yaccarino stepping in to lead X (Twitter) when it was already in sharp decline; and also Marissa Mayer, who led Yahoo only when it was losing significant shares to Google.

John Lewis appointed Sharon White as its CEO when the share price was falling. She inherited a restructure of the business from a former chairman, Sir Charlie Mayfield, and she quickly noted that it wasn’t going to work and so had to spend valuable time unpicking previous actions. When she stepped down after a tumultuous period for the retailer, plenty of blame was heaped at her door.

Gender isn’t the only barrier

People of ethnic minority backgrounds face similar struggles in the workplace due to implicit leadership theories. EY reported that only 12 CEO positions in the FTSE 100 are held by individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. A large field study conducted by Adamovic and Leibbrandt last year found that ethnic minorities were almost 60% less likely to get a positive response to a job advertisement, using identical CVs to white counterparts in Australia. Read more about this here .

The term ‘bamboo ceiling’ refers to the notion that Asian individuals find it harder to get into leadership positions in Western countries. Research has found that in the US, candidates who didn’t go through the US university schooling system were likely to be overlooked for jobs when compared to their peers in the US who did.

Implicit Leadership Theories

ILTs remain relatively stable through an individual’s lifetime and through cultural bias. It’s been found that the most desirable traits in a leader are Sensitivity, Tyranny, Charisma, Dedication, Strength, Intelligence, and Masculinity which echo more of the masculine traits mentioned earlier.

It is important to think about how we assess these traits in our hiring process. For example, do organisations use references/subjective experiences from other individuals’ opinions or do they use some form of personality testing?

If the latter, it is pertinent to assess the desired ‘outcomes’ that we seek from individuals and whether we are exerting bias into that process; or whether it is reflective of the state of the organisation and specific requirements of the role.

According to similarity attraction bias, we are more likely to hire and promote individuals who are most like us. Leaning on this or not challenging this bias throughout the hiring process leaves organisations prone to replicating the same individuals already in existence and hinders the chances of hiring a more diverse group of leaders.

Retaining the best individuals

Whoever is brought into the business, it’s not just about hiring a diverse workforce to invigorate and challenge the status quo. It is equally important to have the structures in place to retain individuals as they work through their careers:

- Good maternity and paternity leave policies

Businesses such as Innocent (recently announcing 16 weeks fully paid gender-equal parental leave) encourage huge steps forward in this area, and more and more companies are moving to 6 months of fully paid maternity leave.

- Flexible working

It is still to be seen what will come of post-pandemic life, however, most organisations are still operating a hybrid model. Are we supporting colleagues who need more flexibility than others? More effort might need to go into training and development.

- Flexibility around public holidays

Christmas is not universally celebrated and organisations should consider flexibility around other celebrations/holidays to honour other religious beliefs.

- Career development

Read about how important development and training are considered to be in today’s workplace here .

- Company culture

As previously discussed in Freshminds' Insights , an inclusive company culture can only be led from the top, and inclusivity tends to lead to higher retention of leaders and executives alike, who feel valued and who enjoy coming to work. Read MD Adam Clements’ own take on this .

Leadership and guidance

Here at Freshminds, we are very aware of the implicit biases we have as individuals and how this affects our decision-making process. We are here to encourage and support our clients to build diverse teams, from graduate hires to leadership appointments, and will work with you to guide on your selection and assessment process.

It’s less of the “glass cliff” – and more of the mountaineering equipment – to ensure that the best people are engaged and stay with your business for the optimum amount of time.

Speak to our Search Team here .