diveristy

An Annual Burst of Enthusiasm For The New Year

An Annual Burst of Enthusiasm For The New Year

As a regular contributor on the January ‘Pipeline Top Flight’ flagship Leadership programme for senior female executives targeting at CEO, COO, CFO and other senior leadership roles.  I come away with a refreshed sense of what can be accomplished and a determination to support the further achievement of women to the senior levels of our companies, organisations and Boards.  It is my annual visible glimpse of the talent pool awaiting to be released on to our Boards. 

On the programme we collectively ‘dived’ into the world of Boards, to better understand what Boards need and the role the individual can play.  This enables the participants to understand what drive Boards and to target the senior leadership roles which support the Board with more precision.

Female Executive Leadership Pipeline

Female Executive Leadership Pipeline

As we reflect on the decade since the Davis Report on Women on Boards, there is the opportunity to celebrate and commiserate on what has been achieved.

As we see from the recently published Spencer Stuart Board Diversity Index 2021 and the Female FTSE Board Report by Cranfield University, there are many successes to proclaim on the gender progression and minority representation on Boards. However, there are two glaring and highly impactful ‘black holes’ in key crucial positions which mute this celebration. We have got nowhere near solving the inequality of women in the key CEO leadership positions and nowhere near a 40% women leadership of our Boards.

The artful activist chair

The artful activist chair

Leaders need to provoke and challenge the whole board to participate and engage as a group, to be ready for challenges ahead. But do they have the necessary skills?

The role of the chair has changed significantly over the past 10 years and now requires a set of skills that can balance the significant step change in a board’s responsibilities and reporting, embracing the challenges of widespread stakeholder lobbying across the environmental, social and governance (ESG) landscape.

Women as the Board Chairman

Women as the Board Chairman

I have been advocating for some time the necessity for accelerated action to appoint more woman as Chairman in the FTSE 350 as a driver of change at the Board level (Article: Women Covid Leadership – The Head, The Heart and The Egos, The Gender Bonus Beyond further articles on our website). My view is that greater gender diversity in the Chairman role would have a leverage effect and directly hasten and advance Executive pipeline diversity at senior leadership levels, with the percentage of women in executive roles flatlining in both the FTSE 100 and 250 in 2021. Also it would actively facilitate tackling pay gap differentials at the Board and executive levels and provide a more effective response to the growing board challenges on ESG issues, especially climate change. While advances have been made on the gender balance on Boards, the Chairman stands out as an unacknowledged ‘blind spot’ in advancing our Boards into a modern era.

Chairman As Leaders – Driving The Future Agenda Of Boards

Chairman As Leaders – Driving The Future Agenda Of Boards

Trust building and Integration as critical leadership skills that will be required of Business in the future is a perspective that is in short supply at the moment. Helen Pitcher OBE argues that we can not afford to ignore the 30% to 40% tranche of females emerging from Commercial, Organisational and Charitable Boards who are likely to have these skills, as such we need to rapidly accelerate the numbers of Female Chairman of our Boards.

The Female FTSE Board Report 2019

The Female FTSE Board Report 2019

Helen Pitcher OBE has contributed to the Cranfield University Report “The Female FTSE Board Report 2019”. This report is an important barometer, helping us measure just how much progress has been made in appointing women onto boards. This report is part of a larger initiative with INSEAD, The Pipeline, various FTSE chairman, Senior women and head-hunters to help accelerate getting more women into FTSE chairman roles.

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A Step Change In Diversity Perspective: The Shifting Sands of Diversity

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A Step Change In Diversity Perspective: The Shifting Sands of Diversity

In a changing world, with pressures at global, regional and local levels, the motivations of companies are in the mix.  These changes range from a rapidly increasing complexity of the business environment, through to heightened consumer ethical awareness, to a fracturing political landscape.

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Are you on the crest of the diversity wave – or struggling to catch up?

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An article by Advanced Boardroom Excellence for INFORMED, the quarterly magazine of The Investor Relations Society, Autumn issue 2014, no 84.

Ensuring that the board has a good response to external questions about diversity is a vital part of the IRO’s work. Helen Pitcher looks at the issues involved in this area.

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And just who is responsible for diversity?

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And just who is responsible for diversity?

An article by Advanced Boardroom Excellence for HR Networks magazine

The change in the diversity environment is notoriously slow and ponderous. Here Helen Pitcher Chairman of Advanced Boardroom Excellence, a Board Effectiveness Consultancy ponders the speed of change and suggests we are at a significant point in the business cycle with regard to diversity.

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