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© 2012 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, May 7, 2012 | B7

WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY

You would think the problem would be solved by now.Business and government leaders have been talking

for decades about advancing more women to top lead-ership and professional roles. Young women today areentering the workforce better prepared and more am-bitious than ever, with more education and higher ca-reer aspirations than men.

In the executive suite, the idea is no longer even controversial.When McKinsey & Co. asked senior executives at 60 big companiesrecently why they are trying to advance women, “they laughed atus,” says Dominic Barton, McKinsey’s global managing director. Thecommon response, he says: “Are you kidding?” Almost nine in 10CEOs agree that tapping female talent is important to “getting thebest brains” and competing in markets where women now makemost of the purchasing decisions, the McKinsey study says.

“They drove it home again and again,” Mr. Barton says, citing aCEO’s quote from the study: “The only sustainable competitive ad-vantage is talent. How could you not consider half the world’s popu-lation?”

So why are we still talking about this?That was the key question at last week’s Women in the Economy

conference, convened by The Wall Street Journal. At the conference,some 200 top leaders in government, business and academia gath-ered with a mission: to come up with a plan to make better use offemale talent to promote economic growth and competitiveness inthe U.S. and world-wide.

The need for such a plan was clear. For one thing, companies arestill bleeding female talent at an alarming rate. Women land 53% ofentry-level jobs and make it to “the belly of the pipeline” in largenumbers, McKinsey found. But then, female presence falls off a cliff,to 35% at the director level, 24% among senior vice presidents and19% in the C-suite.

Google Inc. has trouble advancing women engineers, Laszlo Bock,senior vice president, people operations, said at the Journal confer-ence. All employees are encouraged to nominate themselves for pro-motions, he says. Men jump at the chance, often before they areready, and are often turned down.

But women must be prodded: “For God’s sake, nominate yourselffor promotions. You’re holding yourself back,” Mr. Bock says he tellsfemale employees. Women who finally step up usually get the nod:“By the time a woman says she is ready, she was probably ready ayear ago.”

Barriers to women “are deeply intertwined, making them evenharder to eliminate than we had thought,” McKinsey says, based ondetailed data from more than 50 companies that opened up their re-cords for a deep look at the pipeline. Women lack sponsors to advo-cate for them, and leaders often assume they won’t want tough as-signments. About half the women surveyed by McKinsey are bothprimary breadwinners and primary caregivers to their families, andmany tend to avoid jobs that bring greater pressure.

Women who advance often raise their hands for “ugly jobs” inline management where they “take on the challenge” and provethemselves in a visible way, says Beth Mooney, chairman and chiefexecutive of KeyCorp, a Cleveland-based bank. But the McKinseystudy shows women in general opt at far higher rates than men forstaff jobs, sometimes labelled “the pink ghetto.” Some 50% to 65%of women at the vice-president level and higher are in staff jobs,compared with only 41% to 48% of men.

High-ranking female role models are scarce, and they are toughacts to follow. Among senior managers, “the women who made itthrough are Olympians,” Mr. Barton says: “83% of them had families,and they were doing line roles” in management. “Many of them said,‘I was the one who turned the lights off every night.’ ” Only 17 ofFortune 500 CEOs are female, up from 12 last year.

Even well-intentioned executives tend, often unconsciously, todismiss women’s contributions. At Ernst & Young, where 23% to 26%of leadership teams internationally are women, CEO James Turleytold the WSJ conference that he was running a meeting years agowhen “three or four women said something I wasn’t paying atten-tion to. Then a guy said something similar and I said, ‘That’s a reallygood point.’ ” Afterward, a female executive took him aside and said,“You probably have no idea what just happened,” he says. He hasn’tmade the same mistake since.

Many diversity programs offer only mentoring or networkingamong women who all face the same tough odds. This has bred cyni-cism. Even when CEOs promote diversity, only 54% of employees be-lieve it, McKinsey says.

The gender gap is even wider for women of color. Among African-American employees, both men and women express an above-aver-age desire to advance to the next level; McKinsey found 81% of menand 86% of women saying they want to advance, compared with 74%of all men and 69% of all women. But far more black women believethose aspirations will be dashed: Only 35% think they will have achance to move up, compared with 41% of all women. In stark con-trast, black men feel even more empowered than whites: 49% believethey will move up, compared with 43% of men on average.

Women’s growing clout is lending urgency to the issue. At Gen-eral Motors Co., CEO Daniel Akerson says he believes 60% of car-buying decisions are made by women. On the GM board, where fourof 12 directors are women, he’d like to see a more even split alonggender lines. “I know I will be criticized for this,” he said at the con-ference, but he believes women often “have a higher emotional quo-tient, and they deal with change, radical change,” well.

The waste of talent hits closer to home in the professional-serv-ices sector. About half of medical-school graduates are women, med-ical-school data show. But only 4.38% of practicing neurosurgeonsare female, says Gail Rosseau, a neurosurgeon and a director of the

PleaseturntopageB9

BY SUE SHELLENBARGER

THEXXFACTOR:

What’sHoldingWomenBack?A task force of business, government and academic leaders set out to

confront obstacles that keep women from participating fully inthe economy. Here are their recommendations.

.

‘When you think aboutwork/life balance, it sets up

a false expectation ofperfect equilibrium.’

DENISE MORRISON

‘Women are reallygood at making friends

and not good atnetworking.’

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

‘Don’t be half anywhere.Be there.

Wherever you are,be there.’CAROL BARTZ

‘Being a car guy rightnow isn’t the best thing,because the car guysdrove it over the edge.’

DAN AKERSON

‘The more hours oftelevision a girl watches,the fewer options shethinks she has in life.’

GEENA DAVIS

‘It’s the willingness totake the ugly job,to fix the thing

that’s not working.’BETH MOONEY

Genesis

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B8 | Monday, May 7, 2012 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

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THE JOURNAL REPORT: WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, May 7, 2012 | B9

American Association of Neuro-logical Surgeons. “If you’re hav-ing brain surgery, wouldn’t youwant your neurosurgeon to bethe best and the brightest?” shesays.

There is evidence that theU.S. is losing ground. Women aremaking huge strides in emergingeconomies such as India andChina; in India, 12% of chief-ex-ecutive slots at the 250 biggestcompanies are held by women,based on research by SylviaHewlett, president of the Centerfor Talent Innovation.

At The Wall Street Journalconference, members of its Exec-utive Task Force on Women wereasked to recommend next steps.In two days of working sessions,working groups produced a setof tools for organizations and in-dividuals to use in removing ob-stacles to women and minorities.

Like any “tool kit,” not all thetactics will be useful for everycompany or organization. But allshare a goal of improving com-petitiveness—not by givingwomen special career tracks orentitlements, but by creating afairer meritocracy. Underpinningall the groups’ work was a sharpfocus on identifying high-poten-tial employees early, rewardingperformance, setting rigorousgoals and metrics and holdingleaders accountable.

Here’s a closer look at the Ex-ecutive Task Force workinggroups and their top four recom-mendations:

A TOOL KIT FORTHE ORGANIZATION

It Starts at the Top:Engaging the C-Suite

1 ENLARGE STRATEGY MEET-INGS. Include emerging

midlevel leaders, including50% women, and provide op-portunities to collaborate andmake presentations.

2 SET GOALS AND MEASURE.Hold senior managers ac-

countable by tying promotionand compensation to meetingdiversity goals and requiringregular reports to the board.

3 AUDIT THE CULTURE. Exam-ine assumptions about how

women leaders are “supposedto behave,” and help managersunderstand the view fromwomen’s seats.

4 SPONSOR FROM THE TOP.Have senior vice presi-

dents and other top leaders,rather than direct managers,nominate diverse talent forleadership development andvisible roles.

M any companies advancewomen simply by add-ing seats to the execu-

tive committee, McKinsey foundin its study. This working groupendorses also inviting high-po-tential middle managers to strat-egy meetings, giving them achance to make presentations,collaborate with others and“break down the silos” betweendepartments, says Debra Lee,chairman and CEO of BET Net-works and a co-chair of theworking group.

No company can make muchprogress without engaging theCEO; this group advised settingdiversity targets and holding se-nior executives’ feet to the fire.“You get what you inspect,” says

ContinuedfrompageB7 working-group co-chair TeresaSebastian, a senior vice presi-dent and general counsel atDarden Restaurants, and execu-tives whose “pay or promotionsare at risk” are more likely tochange. Also, Ms. Lee says, CEOsshould “call out wrong behav-iors” by others. “We call that,‘Men who are behaving badly.’ ”

One of the most oft-endorsedtools at the conference wassponsorships—strong relation-ships in which a senior executiveadvises and advocates for apromising lower-ranking man-ager. This group endorsed “skip-level” sponsorships, advising C-suite executives to sponsorprotégés two levels below them.This sidesteps a common obsta-cle—an immediate boss whofeels too threatened by a tal-ented subordinate to be a goodsponsor, Ms. Sebastian says.

Making the Bet:Potential in the Pipeline

1 EMBED PERFORMANCE-BASED TRIGGERS. Create a

high-performance culture byembedding performance-basedprompts and processes at keydecision-making points.

2 CREATE A CULTURE OFSPONSORSHIP. Show senior

leaders what’s in it for them,and “bake it” into executivepay.

3 SET HOLISTIC PROGRAMS.Diversity initiatives should

encompass sponsorship, men-torship, networking, successionplanning and directorships. Setclear career paths.

4 OFFER COACHING PRO-GRAMS. Provide high-po-

tential women training in “ex-ecutive presence” starting atmidcareer, helping them to beseen as “leadership material.”

C orporate leaders oftenmean well but uncon-sciously behave in biased

ways. To help “turn their goodintentions into good decisionsand good actions,” checkpointsand prompts should be built intorecruiting, promotion, sponsor-ship, training and career-plan-ning processes, says Kara Hel-ander, a group co-chair andmanaging director of BlackRockInc. Dana Beth Ardi, managingdirector of Corporate Anthropol-ogy Advisors, says diversitymust “become a mantra for theentire organization,” and seniorleaders and employees alikeshould be held accountable.

Also, sponsorship should be atwo-way street, says co-chairJulia Dulan, managing attorneywith Southern Co. Not onlyshould sponsors “go out on alimb, advocate for the next pro-motion for the employee andprovide air cover,” but protégéshave an obligation to “be trust-worthy and loyal, and able to becounted on to deliver the goods,”she says.

The Bottom Line:Owning Profit

1 MEASURE BY PERFORM-ANCE. Create performance

metrics that eliminate genderbias. Set clear roles and re-sponsibilities for every job.

2 MAKE SUCCESSION TRANS-PARENT. Post jobs regularly

and ensure a diverse candidate

slate. Hold regular succession-planning reviews and makemanagers accountable.

3 OFFER A RANGE OF ROLES.Equip employees to run

profit-and-loss operations byoffering a range of roles. Em-brace individual styles of lead-ership.

4 ARTICULATE THE BUSINESSCASE. Make clear why ad-

vancing women leaders willimprove the bottom line. Holdleaders accountable for placingwomen in P&L roles.

L ine-management experi-ence is a career linchpinfor nearly four out of five

successful women executives,based on the McKinsey study,but too few women are gettingit. Some “don’t put their hat inthe ring, because they think au-tomatically, ‘I’d have to travel24/7 and be available all thetime,’ ” says Adele Gulfo, presi-dent of Pfizer’s U.S. primary-careoperations, and a group co-chair.In other cases, “entrenched be-liefs and perceptions about therole of women” get in their way.

Christine Owens, a senior vicepresident at United Parcel Ser-vice Inc., advises basing per-formance reviews on metricstied to business goals, ratherthan subjective impressions suchas, “great guy—wonderfulwoman. You need to talk specif-ics.”

Extreme Sport:The Work-Life Balancing Act

1 MAKE FLEXIBILITY A RIGHT.True work-life flexibility

should be an inclusive part ofcompany strategy and culture,for every employee.

2 ENCOURAGE RETENTIONSPONSORSHIP. Create a cli-

mate where senior womenreach out to younger womento share encouragement and asense of purpose and hope.

3 PUBLICIZE AND CELEBRATE.Create a culture that cele-

brates work-life balance. Publi-cize success stories inside andoutside the organization.

4 PROVIDE TOOLS FOR MAN-AGERS. Equip every front-

line manager to discuss work-life issues and implementpolicies. Make managers ac-countable for retaining keystaff.

F athers tend to get moreambitious as their familiesgrow, but women’s desire

to advance drops after having asecond child, the McKinseystudy shows. True flexibility inmanaging work time should beallowed all employees, male andfemale, parents and non-parents,says Helena Foulkes, an execu-tive vice president of CVS Care-mark Corp., and a group co-chair. This would encouragemore open talk and mutual sup-port.

Women also should sharehope and encouragement, saysMs. Foulkes, a mother of four.Early in her career, “I really wishsomeone had told me that 10years later, the work would belots more interesting,” she says.She encourages young managers“to think ahead to the next fiveto 10 years, because when you’rein the battle zone of that period,you don’t often appreciate thevalue of sticking to it.”

Equipping managers to have“difficult conversations” withemployees about work-life con-flicts would help them addressproblems, rather than lettingthem fester, says Katherine Gar-

rett-Cox, chief executive of Alli-ance Trust. Also a mother offour, Ms. Garrett-Cox says shesets an example, recently tellingher team during a busy periodthat she was leaving at 6 p.m.“to dress up as a pirate and gohome and celebrate my son’sseventh birthday.”

A Winning Culture

1 RETHINK LEADERSHIP. Meetwith employees at least

two levels beneath you to askfor a reality check and feed-back. Build cultural and globalcompetency, and gauge its im-pact on the business.

2 HARNESS INNOVATION. Pro-mote curiosity, leverage in-

terdisciplinary partnershipsand build collaboration to aidcompetitiveness. Celebrate fail-ure, and reward risk-taking.

3 GET REAL ABOUT SPONSOR-SHIP. Expect all leaders,

male and female, to sponsorthree diverse successors. Re-quire regular progress reports.

4 SET A HIGH BAR. Challengewomen to take on risky,

high-stakes assignments. Holdexecutives accountable for us-ing metrics to measure prog-ress.

E xecutives should exploreemployees’ views on thecompany culture by seek-

ing out lower-level employeesand asking them. “A lot of thiswe can learn by simply listen-ing,” says Julie Louise Gerberd-ing, president of Merck Vaccines.Cultural-quality measures shouldbe embedded in performanceplans and reviews, Dr. Gerberd-ing says; “if we don’t measure it,it won’t happen.”

Also, many women have aninherent strength, a “collabora-tive capacity,” that can enrich acompany’s culture, says Mama-tha Chamarthi, vice presidentand chief information officer atCMS Energy Corp. Tapping thisstrength can spark “matrixedthinking” on work teams, help-ing a company gain a competi-tive edge, she says.

Diversifying the Board

1 IMPROVE GOVERNANCE. En-force term limits, and ro-

tate committee memberships.Require a diverse slate of can-didates, and include women di-rectors on the nominatingcommittee.

2 DEVELOP BOARD REGIS-TRIES. Industries could de-

velop lists of qualified womenwilling to serve on boards. En-courage women to submit theirnames.

3 IDENTIFY WOMEN CANDI-DATES. Human-resources

managers and CEOs could helpidentify potential board candi-dates.

4 PLAN FOR GENDER DIVER-SITY. The board should do

succession planning on a roll-ing five-year-plan basis. Makegender diversity nonnegotia-ble.

M any boards “use the ex-cuse ‘we just can’t finda qualified woman,’

which isn’t accurate,” says Kar-ena Strella, co-managing partnerof Egon Zehnder Internationaland a group co-chair. Creatingnew, industrywide candidateregistries could help identifyprospects, she says.

Boards also should consideryounger candidates who display“mental maturity,” says DavidChavern, chief operating officerof the U.S. Chamber of Com-merce. In an age of new mediaand rapid change in general, hesays, engaging younger directorswith experience in emergingfields makes sense.

A TOOL KIT FORSOCIETY AND THE

INDIVIDUAL

Advancing Women inScience, Technology,Engineering and Math

1 REQUIRE “STEM” STUDIES.Set a common K-12 curricu-

lum of science, technology, en-

gineering and math. Exposegirls to female role models.

2 RECRUIT, RETAIN AND AD-VANCE WOMEN. Find at

least one female candidate forevery technical job. Rewardthe C-suite for retaining andpromoting women.

3 SELL SIZZLE AND MEANING.Develop a national market-

ing campaign to promoteSTEM, positioning scientists asgame changers who are mak-ing a difference.

4 ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY.Work with youth groups to

interest young girls in STEM.Promote STEM activities in af-ter-school programs.

Improving U.S. science andmath education is critical tokeep U.S. teens from falling

further behind their global coun-terparts in math and sciencescores, says Margaret Honey,president and CEO of the NewYork Hall of Science and a groupco-chair. Teacher training shouldbe improved, and instructionshould include more hands-onprojects that interest girls.

Scientific and technicalwomen exit jobs at midcareer ineven greater numbers than inother fields, says Susan Ness, asenior fellow at the SAIS Centerfor Transatlantic Relations. Em-ployers should create a flexibleworkplace culture, offer profes-sional-development courses forwomen on career breaks and en-courage them to return to work.

Glen Morrison, president ofAlcoa’s building and construc-tion-systems unit, suggests gov-ernment and companies might

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TheXXFactorTHE JOURNAL REPORT: WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY

‘There are times when you have a

huge project, you have quarterly

earnings, I don’t care what it is. And

you are focused. You say to your

family, “I’m not going to see you

much this week or this month.” And

then when you go home, put the

iPad away, the BlackBerry down, and

be there. Don’t be half anywhere. Be

there. Wherever you are, be there.’

CAROL BARTZFormer CEO of Yahoo and Autodesk

VOICES FROM THE CONFERENCE

‘We started a women’s forum.We got up to 500 people.

The best of the women wouldcome to me and say,

“I don’t want to be in thisforum. I’m not in the

victims’ unit. I am a star.I want to be compared with

the best of your best.” ’JOHN F. WELCH,

FORMER CHAIRMAN ANDCEO OF GENERAL ELECTRIC ANDFOUNDER OF THE JACK WELCH

MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

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Online>>LIVE CHAT: Speak with McKinsey& Co. director Joanna Barsh aboutleadership in the workplace andhow to accelerate your career, at 1p.m. EDT. Ask your questions atWSJ.com/Careers.

ONLINE TODAY: You can readmore about the McKinseyresearch for The Wall StreetJournal’s Women in the EconomyWorkforce, at WSJ.com/WIE.

Support for Gender Diversity—but Questions About CEO PrioritiesA vast majority of corporate participants in a new McKinsey & Co. study say there's a good casefor gender diversity in business. But women are far less likely than men to believe the CEO is visiblycommitted to it, even when it’s a corporate priority.

u Is there a business casefor gender diversity?

Yes73%

No/Don'tKnow27%

u Is gender diversity on theCEO's strategic agenda?

Not onstrategicagenda13%

u Do you agree with thestatement, "Our CEO is visiblycommitted to gender diversity?"*

Women

Men

Average

54%

61%

47%

Top-10 strategicpriority

57%

On agenda,but not in

top 1030%

Are You Ready to Commit?

*Includes responses from the 5 companies that ranked gender diversity as a top-10 item or higher and completed an attitudinal survey

Stubborn BarriersAmong entry and midlevel employees, both women and men want to advance in their organizations.But far fewer women than men express a desire to reach the very top:

I have the desire to advance tothe next level of my organization.

If anything were possible,I would choose to advance toC-level of management.

69%

74%

18%

36%

Pct. of Women Pct. of Men u Even among successful femaleleaders, an overwhelming majoritysay they don't aspire to the toplevels of their organizations:

u Taking a support, or staff,role early on may limit women'sbreadth of experience for toproles later on. Percentage ofwomen in staff positions:

Entry Level

Manager

Director

Vice President

Senior Vice President

C-Suite

34

28

38

50

54

65

The Wall Street Journal

No59%

Yes41%

Note: For more on the McKinsey research, go to WSJ.com/WIE.Source: McKinsey & Co. research for The Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy Task Force

‘Women on the board dobring a different perspective.

They think a little bitdifferently. They are morecomfortable with ambiguity.It’s not such a linear thought.

Just that difference andhaving that give and take at

the board level is veryimportant for America’soverall competitiveness.’

DESIREE ROGERS,CEO, JOHNSON PUBLISHING CO.

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B10 | Monday, May 7, 2012 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

collaborate on marketing cam-paigns stressing the meaningmany scientists find in theirwork—to “transcend the labcoat” image and position scien-tists as heroes to society.

The Winning Entrepreneur

1 WSJ: MORE ENTREPRE-NEURS! The Wall Street

Journal and other publicationsshould increase coverage ofentrepreneurship.

2 FORMALIZE CONNECTIONS.Ask venture capitalists, an-

gel investors and business-school faculty to introducewomen entrepreneurs to pro-spective funders.

3 CORPORATE CHAMPIONS.Create partnerships be-

tween corporations and entre-preneurs who contribute R&Din return for advice and oper-ating help.

4 TAX CREDITS FOR ANGELS.Create federal tax credits

for angel investors who pro-vide capital for start-ups. Al-low investors to sell unusedcredits.

M ore media coverage ofwomen as entrepre-neurs and business ex-

perts, and of entrepreneurship ingeneral, would encouragewomen to act on entrepreneurialideas and form businesses, saysKay Koplovitz, CEO of Koplovitz& Co. and former president ofUSA Networks.

The group, co-chaired by Bar-bara Boxer, an investment part-ner in Belle Capital Fund andpresident of Women Angels, andHeidi Messer, chairman of Col-lective [i], also endorsed creat-ing a registry of accomplishedwomen to help aspiring entre-preneurs reach out for network-ing and financing help.

Beyond the University

1 BUILD A LEADERSHIP INSTI-TUTE. This business-univer-

sity partnership could identifyhigh-potential college womenfor early training and develop-ment.

2 GPS FOR LIFE. Provide a ca-reer-strategy tool kit to

help with change management,career planning, negotiatingand entrepreneurship.

3 EXPLOIT THE RESEARCH.Use existing research to in-

form college students aboutnavigating the workplace, em-bracing diversity and seizingopportunities.

4 LINE JOBS: START EARLY.Teach students how excit-

ContinuedfrompageB9 ing and rewarding operatingjobs can be. Help them set ca-reer plans that start with oper-ating jobs.

C reating a leadership insti-tute to identify potentialfemale leaders on college

campuses and providing earlycoaching could help them get offto a faster start in the work-place, says Susan Desmond-Hell-mann, chancellor of the Univer-sity of California, San Francisco,and a co-chair. Funding for theprogram might come from apublic-private partnership.Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, presi-dent and managing director ofApollo Research Institute, says,“The key is to start it at the uni-versity level, rather than waitinguntil they are out.”

Although women tend to out-perform men during college, re-search shows they regard them-selves as less capable in mathand science, often hamperingtheir advancement and job per-formance, says Helen Drinan,president of Simmons College.Educating women and menabout these patterns could bet-ter equip them to enter theworkplace, she says.

The Role of Government

1 LEAD BY EXAMPLE. Govern-ment should be a role

model for hiring, committingto 30% women at the top andreporting on progress.

2 OPTIMIZE TAX POLICY. Re-duce the corporate tax rate

to 20% to avoid penalizingsmall businesses for growth.Give tax breaks for supportingwomen returning to work.

3 INCENTIVIZE CHILD CARE.Government should sup-

port more accessible, afford-able child-care options, includ-ing preschool.

4 ANALYZE IMPACT OF POLI-CIES. Review proposals and

laws, and update those thatdisadvantage women. Helpmake the economic case forwomen in business.

K eeping jobs open forwomen out on maternityleave can be costly, and

tax breaks could help offset that,says Kim Campbell, formerprime minister of Canada and aco-chair of the group. Also, gov-ernment incentives could sparkgrowth in reliable child care,helping more women participatein the workforce, she says.

Government could mine itsdatabase to help build “an eco-nomic case for the full participa-tion of women” in the workforce,says Barbara Kasoff, president ofthe nonprofit Women Impacting

Public Policy. Better data isneeded on women’s participationin small business, she says.

Government also should setan example of diversity, saysPaula Dobriansky, an adjunct se-nior fellow at Harvard Univer-sity’s JFK Belfer Center for Sci-ence and International Affairs.Seeing women advance in na-tional and state capitals “can re-ally have an impact on leader-ship of our businesses.”

It Starts with Us

1 BUILD COALITIONS. Facilitateand support groups within

companies that encourage di-versity. Accept differences, in-clude men and ask for re-sources.

2 ORGANIZE PERSONAL AL-LIES. Bring together allies

across functions, levels and ra-cial-ethnic groups to strate-gize, advocate, mentor andsupport women.

3 PROMOTE THE BUSINESSCASE. Show the return on

investment for advancingwomen. Identify obstacles andbenefits. Set goals and mea-sure results.

4 CELEBRATE SMALL WINS.Tempered radicals who

rock the boat without fallingout can foster change throughsmall wins. Model behavioryou want to see.

F orming a group of womenfrom different levels andjob functions, as a kind of

“personal” board, can helpwomen learn how they are seenby colleagues and how theymight improve, says Linda Aps-ley, a principal group programmanager at Microsoft Corp. anda co-chair. Reaching out towomen of all racial and ethnicgroups is crucial, she adds.

Individuals also can promotethe business case—“delineatingthe return on investment ofmoving women forward,” as wellas nonfinancial benefits and theobstacles that remain, saysHelene Lollis, president of Path-builders.

Lori Beer, an executive vicepresident at WellPoint, advisescelebrating even small wins—such as a single manager makinga decision to always assemble adiverse slate of candidates forpromotions.

Drawing on a 2001 book byDebra Meyerson, the group rec-ommended becoming “temperedradicals”—employees who usetensions and differences withtheir employers and colleaguesto spark growth and change.

Personal Strategies:Tools for the Individual

1 RAISE YOUR HAND. Ownyour accomplishments, and

don’t overplay failures. Volun-teer for high-risk assignments.Ask and negotiate for what youwant.

2 DO SELF-ASSESSMENTS.Regularly consider, “How

do people experience me? Am Ia game changer and value cre-ator who builds trusting rela-tionships?”

3 CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS.Don’t just network; bond

with key peers, male and fe-male, who know you and sup-port your ambitions. Ask forand accept help.

4 USE ADAPTIVE COMMUNICA-TION. Know your audience

and anticipate their response.Use language as a tool for in-fluence. Learn to interrupt ef-fectively.

“W omen need to raisetheir hands fortough assignments,

for the ugly jobs,” says Dee DeeMyers, managing director ofGlover Park Group, former WhiteHouse press secretary and co-chair of the group. “The firststep in being able to do that isto own our accomplishments,”she says. Regular self-assess-ment can help, she says.

Subordinates learn from lead-ers who use self-assessment “asan evolutionary tool,” showingthem how to be open about bothsuccesses and failures and learnfrom them, says Lynn Tilton,founder and CEO of PatriarchPartners. “It’s important forwomen not to use self-assess-ment as a tool of apology or ademonstration of weakness, butas a weapon of power andstrength.”

Identifying key peers who cansupport your ambitions and helpyou succeed is critical, says NinaGodiwalla, chief executive of

MindWorks. This goes beyondnetworking, to forging deep andlasting bonds.

Finally, learning to use lan-guage as a tool for power and in-fluence—concisely and suc-cinctly, focusing on no morethan three key points and antici-pating the reaction your wordswill incite—can be a powerfultool, she says.

Ms. Shellenbarger is a seniorwriter and Work and Familycolumnist at The Wall StreetJournal. She can be reached atsue.shellenbarger@wsj.com.

TheXXFactorTHE JOURNAL REPORT: WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY

Online>>ONLINE TODAY: Can seniormanagement jobs be done well ona part-time or flexible schedule?Vote and weigh in, atWSJ.com/WIE.

ONLINE TODAY: Is being in topmanagement worth the longhours, politics and pressure? Castyour vote and discuss, atWSJ.com/WIE.

T he number of femaleCEOs is climbingslowly—but womenstill face a host of ob-stacles as they ap-

proach the top job.To get a closer look at those

problems, and find out whatcompanies can do to helpwomen along, The Wall StreetJournal’s Rebecca Blumensteinspoke with Beth Mooney, chair-man and chief executive of Key-Corp, George Halvorson, chair-man and CEO of KaiserPermanente, and Dominic Bar-ton, global managing director ofMcKinsey & Co.

Here are edited excerpts.

Taking CommandMS. BLUMENSTEIN: Beth, in yourcareer you actually consciouslytook the risky job many times.Could you explain why you didthat and how unusual that was?

MS. MOONEY: It’s more the will-ingness to take the ugly job, tofix the thing that’s not working.People appreciate people whowill step up and take on thechallenge and see the glass ashalf full and see it as an oppor-tunity. I think in my career thatmade a difference.

MS. BLUMENSTEIN: George, yougive some unorthodox advice towomen whom you promoteabout what their first instruc-tions should be to their staff.MR. HALVORSON: Many timeswhen women go into a job, it’shard to get the entire depart-ment to accept them as the boss.So, one of the things I advisewomen to do when they take ona senior job is to have a staffmeeting and in a friendly waysay, “I’m going to reorganize thisdepartment, and I need each ofyou to give me your best think-

ing on how I should reorganizeand what your jobs should bewhen I’m done.”

It scares the heck out of ev-erybody. It gets their attentionimmediately, and they start be-ing really nice and they acknowl-edge that the boss is the boss. Atthe end of that time, you don’thave to reorganize. You just haveto listen to everyone and comeup with an org chart at the end.And then go forward.MS. MOONEY: I had an experienceat a subsidiary company. Therewas a lot of resistance, and itwasn’t subtle. I’d call a staffmeeting and no one would come.I actually called the guys in aroom and said, “What’s the bet-ting line on how long I’m goingto last?” And I said, “I thinkyou’re making the wrong bet.I’m willing to believe that Iwon’t succeed if we all don’tsucceed. The bet is who goes

first, you or me? And mymoney’s on I’ll get rid of you be-fore you get rid of me.”

Walking the WalkMS. BLUMENSTEIN: Is there actu-ally a business case, a competi-tiveness case in favor of employ-ing women, or is this a bit of afeel-good exercise?MR. BARTON: There’s a very clearbusiness case. Fifty-eight per-cent of the graduates from col-leges in the U.S. today arewomen. If you aren’t gettingyour fair share of the talent,you’re losing out. And if you ac-tually look at GDP growth andproductivity and you look at thelast 40 years in the U.S., the factthat women have entered theworkforce has contributed toabout 25% of the GDP. And weare not anywhere near where wecould be.

MS. BLUMENSTEIN: A lot of com-panies have lofty goals when itcomes to promoting women.What is your job in talking thetalk and walking the walk?MR. BARTON: I think there’s a dif-ference between saying it’s apriority and the intensity of it.How much do you talk about it?What sort of sponsorship do youas a CEO have for women?MR. HALVORSON: The CEO needsto make it very clear that diver-sity is the way we’re going torun the company. Part of my jobis to find the right people. Neverhire a token into a job, becausethey’re highly likely to fail, andthe consequences of failure haveramifications. But hire reallygood people, promote and sup-port them, and you end up withsome very good performance.

When you look up the chainof command, every single per-son, regardless of where you are,

what background you come infrom, can see someone wholooks like you further up the lad-der. And you can see more thanone. That’s really important.MS. MOONEY: I have recently hada feedback survey on diversityand inclusion in our own com-pany, and I had an “aha” mo-ment. I thought because we hada legacy of diversity and inclu-sion, and that I was a female,that the priority was clear. Thefeedback I got was, I wasn’t be-ing explicit enough. You have tomake it clear that it is importantto you and how you’re going tohold other people accountable.

MS. BLUMENSTEIN: You said thatthe fact that KeyCorp had a di-verse board helped you whenyou were chosen to be CEO, butin some surprising ways.MS. MOONEY: I think the numberof women on the board took thegender conversation just out ofthe conversation. I gathered itwasn’t even a factor, whichprobably is unique. So it waspresumptively about skills, who’sthe right person.

An African-American boardmember in the interview processgave me an insight into where Iwas falling short among some ofthe men on the board. He said,“You’re too buttoned up. You’retoo prepared. They find it off-

putting, they say, ‘Where is thegenuineness? Is this a personwho would give you the badnews? Is this the person who’sgoing to be candid? If they’re al-ways that buttoned up, what’sthe real person?’ ”

He said, “What I see is abunch of guys who neverdreamed they wouldn’t be in aboard room. I look at you andknow you and I never dreamedwe would. If you get the chance,you’re not going to blow it. Butyou’ve got to show up real. Youdon’t show up real. You show uptoo prepared.”

I thought that was an incredi-ble insight. And then I thought,“Would a man ever show up tooprepared?”

It was a breakthrough mo-ment for me to understand someof what I needed to do to trans-late my abilities and ambitions,to make them comfortable andtrusting that they were makingthe right choice.

MS. BLUMENSTEIN: Carol Bartzhad a very interesting commentabout women not being so kindto other women. Do you see thatwithin your organization?MS. MOONEY: I don’t believe I’veseen that in my career. I’ve seenpeople who are more or lesssupportive of other people, but Iwouldn’t give it a gender face.

TheView From the TopBeth Mooney of KeyCorp and George Halvorson of Kaiser Permanenteon what they’ve learned on the way to the corner office

‘The number ofwomen on the boardtook...gender...out ofthe conversation.’

BETH MOONEY

‘Never hire a tokeninto a job, becausethey’re highly likely

to fail.’GEORGE HALVORSON

‘There’s a differencebetween saying it’s a

priority and theintensity of it.’DOMINIC BARTON

‘When you have morewomen on the board,

is it making a difference?And the answer seems

to be yes. Whatever metricyou use, it seems that whenthere are more women—

maybe it’s greater diversityof thought that getsput into decision-

making—you get betterdecision-making.’

JANE SHAW,CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF

DIRECTORS OF INTEL

‘I’m not a big believer thatthe way to fix all the problemsin the world is to come upwith some new piece oflegislation. But I do think

that the pressure from belowand the side and the media

and everything else isabsolutely fair game.’

JACK A. MARKELL,GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE

Read more about women in leadership positions in technology,finance, and sales and marketing:

The four rules of pregnancy leave Men on the mommy track All women need to do is push back Ogilvy’s Shelly Lazarus on the ‘Even Playing Field’ Gilt Groupe’s Melanie Hughes on how a prison attack pre-

pared her for HRAt FINS.com From The Wall Street Journal

Women in theWorkplace

Genesis

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Online>>ONLINE TODAY: You can readmore about the recommendationsof The Wall Street Journal’s taskforce, along with a listing of theco-chairs and subject experts, atWSJ.com/WIE.

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W hen Dan Akersontook over theturnaround ef-fort at GeneralMotors Co., few

could have predicted one impacthe would start to have almostimmediately: more importantroles for women at GM, all theway up to the boardroom.

The Wall Street Journal’s AlanMurray engaged the GM chair-man and chief executive in aconversation about the contribu-tions being made by women di-rectors, executives, managersand engineers in the reinventingof the automotive giant. In theprocess, Mr. Akerson also paidtribute to a woman with a singu-lar influence on his career—hismother.

Here are edited excerpts oftheir conversation.

ALAN MURRAY: Detroit, the autoindustry, is probably one of themost male-dominated industriesthat you can imagine. You’vemade a concerted effort, as anoutsider, to promote and bringin more women. Why?DAN AKERSON: I don’t know if itwas so much conscious as recog-nition of talent. You are some-what a captive of your past. AndI grew up in a home where mymom was really something. Shehad more of an impact on methan my dad, who I loved dearly.My mom was a real ambitious,talented, risk-oriented woman.She started working, when I was11, outside the home. Started asa cashier at a Piggly Wiggly for65 cents an hour, and she endedup being the assistant storemanager. Had she not been awoman—and I don’t mean thatin a bad way—she should havebeen the manager. The managerwould even say that.

So, to me it’s not so muchgender-based, it’s just capability.Four of 12 of our directors arewomen. Mary Barra [senior vicepresident, global product devel-opment] is one of the mostgifted executives I’ve ever met.She was running HR but hadcome up through manufacturingand engineering. Ran plants. In atradition-bound company likeGeneral Motors, the HR personwas viewed as kind of the personbehind the throne who wouldwhisper and make the princes ofthe organization, which I justdidn’t like. So now she’s thehead of all product developmentglobally.

MR. MURRAY: And that is sort ofthe ultimate car-guy job, right?MR. AKERSON: Car gal.

MR. MURRAY: She must be thefirst car gal, right? I mean it’ssort of a job that’s infested withtestosterone.MR. AKERSON: Yeah, there’s a lotof that in Detroit. I would say

that Mary is as good at seeingthrough the bureaucracy and theprocess and what’s importantand what’s not. She works in-credibly well with people.

MR. MURRAY: You got some criti-cism for that appointment.MR. AKERSON: Yeah. I was sur-prised, quite frankly. I mean, be-cause I wasn’t a car guy. But I al-most think that being a car guyright now isn’t the best thing,because the car guys drove itover the edge.

When you think about it, [topwomen at GM now include] oneof our executives that runsChevrolet Europe; our third-big-gest market, Brazil; the head ofglobal manufacturing; the headof HR. I didn’t want women intraditional jobs that women areslotted in.

MR. MURRAY: Non-operating jobs.MR. AKERSON: Yeah. Some of ourbiggest plants are run bywomen; 20% of our technicalstaff are women. We seekwomen with engineering de-grees, because this is a complexand technically based company.So you have to start at theground. And GM did that. Theywere a leader. For me it’s a greatgift because you’re able to reapthe benefits of so much invest-ment.

Next CEO?MR. MURRAY: You said that weshould have mentioned MaryBarra in our Wall Street Journalstory about women who areheaded for CEO jobs. Is she go-ing to be the next CEO of GeneralMotors?MR. AKERSON: I don’t know. Sheis a candidate. I wouldn’t be sur-prised if she were. I think thereare a number of qualified candi-dates.

MR. MURRAY: As you said, four ofyour 12 directors are women.Does that affect the culture forwomen within the organization?MR. AKERSON: Yes.

MR. MURRAY: How?MR. AKERSON: You always wantto see people like you that aredoing well, that you can see thathave a shot at the top. And thatgoes along on gender lines andracial and ethnic lines.

MR. MURRAY: Do they put pres-sure on you to advance women?MR. AKERSON: No. They don’tput pressure on me. I don’t knowif I put pressure on myself. Butwe do talent reviews now. I tryto review the top 50 executivesover a two-day period. And wetalk about—well, what if Maryquit or something happened,who would be his or her replace-ment? What are we doing tomake sure we have a good pool?

MR. MURRAY: How many of thetop 50 are women?MR. AKERSON: Close to between20% and 25%.

Open to ChangeMR. MURRAY: You came in to thecompany three years ago, rightafter it came out of bankruptcy.With all the things GM had toworry about to just survive, howand why is it that you made thisa priority?MR. AKERSON: I wouldn’t say Imade it a priority. It was, just to

parse words, a “B” priority. “A”priority was to get the companyunder control. The company hadto be reborn. And now we’re try-ing to reform a good companyinto a great company.

As a leader you have to artic-ulate a vision of where you wantto take the company. And—maybe this is a bias, I know Iwill be criticized for this—Ithink women have a higher emo-tional quotient and they dealwith change, radical change. Wehad to change. We had to kind ofcraft a new governance modeland dictate the cadence of howoften we met to make sure wewere looking at the right issues.

MR. MURRAY: If you look at theculture of the company and theculture of Detroit that youwalked into, and you think aboutwhere you want the culture tobe, on a scale from zero to 100,where are you now? Are youmore than halfway there?MR. AKERSON: No. We’re 20, 25.We have a long, long way to go,I think.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’m curious ifyou have a business rationale forwhy you think gender diversity isimportant.

MR. AKERSON: Well, who are ourcustomers? Women in our soci-ety control or influence 80% ofthe purchase decisions. I don’tknow if that one’s true, but I’m

real confident 60% of the pur-chase decisions on cars, automo-tives, are done by women.

So I think your employee baseand your perspective should be

somewhat if not precisely repre-sentative of your customer base.We want diversity—not onlygender, but race and ethnicity—on the board as well, too.

Women in aMan’sWorldDan Akerson of General Motors on changing a male-dominated culture

THE JOURNAL REPORT: WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY

‘The more hours of television a girl

watches, the fewer options she thinks she

has in life. And the more hours a boy

watches, the more sexist his views become.

So a big imbalance looks completely nor-

mal to us. When you get to about 17, 18,

20%, that looks normal. You don’t walk

into a boardroom and say, “Wow, this

looks so weird,” it’s not half women. I think

we’ve been sort of acculturated to see that

level as, well, we’re done.’

GEENA DAVISFounder, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

VOICES FROM THE CONFERENCE

Genesis

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‘You are somewhat a captive of your past. And I grew upin a home where my mom was really something.’

Online>>ONLINE TODAY: Should managersbe rewarded for helping womenadvance? Vote and weigh in, atWSJ.com/WIE.

ONLINE TODAY: How much ofwomen’s failure to advance incorporations is a result of theirown choices or shortcomings?And how much is the companies’fault? Vote and join thediscussion, at WSJ.com/WIE.

BE FIRSTMORE OFTEN.MORE FIRST CLASS SEATSTHAN ANY OTHER AIRLINE.

DELTA.COM

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B12 | Monday, May 7, 2012 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

O ne could say it runsin the family.

When Denise Mor-rison took commandof food giant Camp-

bell Soup Co. last year, she be-came part of a sibling pair run-ning large U.S. public companies.Her younger sister, Maggie Wil-derotter, is chief executive ofFrontier Communications Corp.Two other sisters also becameexecutives.

Ms. Morrison sat down withThe Wall Street Journal’s LauraLandro to discuss the impor-tance of women setting careergoals and learning how to lever-age relationships and opportuni-ties to achieve them.

Here are edited excerpts:

Born to Be CEO?LAURA LANDRO: Is it true thatyour father was an AT&T execu-tive who told you in grade schoolabout the importance of profitmargins?DENISE MORRISON: Absolutely.And we had to do a businessplan to get a bicycle.

MS. LANDRO: And you had a jobjar.MS. MORRISON: We did. My par-ents had job jars because my fa-ther would say, “Kids today havetoo much time, too much moneyand no responsibility. You’re go-ing to have no time, no moneyand a lot of responsibility.” Wewere like, “Gee, thanks, Dad.”But they invented the job jars,and they would put the familychores in. And [my father]would talk about the family as ateam and everybody had to pulltheir weight. And so my sistersand I would look at our job jars,and we could negotiate and bar-ter the jobs, but they had to bedone by the end of the week.

MS. LANDRO: Did you envisionstarting out in the 1970s and’80s that you would one day bea CEO?MS. MORRISON: I knew at a veryyoung age I wanted to run acompany, and in school and be-yond I was training all my lifefor what I do today.

I wasn’t afraid to declare it

either. In 2007, The Wall StreetJournal did an article on ourfamily, and they put in that Iwanted to be CEO. I remembergetting phone calls from peoplesaying, “I can’t believe you saidthat. What if you don’t get it?”And I’m like, “The thought nevercrossed my mind.”

The thing that I learned earlyon is you really need to set goalsin your life, both short-term andlong-term, just like you do inbusiness. Having that long-termgoal will enable you to have aplan on how to achieve it.

We apply these skills in busi-ness, and yet when it comes toourselves we rarely apply them.And so the insight was what doyou want to be when you growup? I want to run a company.Then, what are the kinds ofthings that you need to do toprepare yourself to do that?

MS. LANDRO: You had said oneproblem is that women expectthe corporation to sort of takecare of them and do it all forthem. But they can’t rely on that.

Is the problem that corporationsdon’t have enough setups to getpeople into those next levels? Isit more up to the individual?MS. MORRISON: I think it’s a two-way street. Most corporationshave human-resources processesthat involve discussions withyour manager, performance eval-uations, calibrations for per-formance and potential succes-sion planning.

However, if you think aboutthe amount of time women in-vest in writing their perform-ance review, it’s like a half-hour,whereas they’ll spend weeks do-ing a business plan. Women haveto take those processes seri-ously.

Nurturing RelationshipsMS. LANDRO: A big theme of thisconference is sponsorship. Wasthere one sponsor who you thinkof as the model sponsor?MS. MORRISON: I can cite numer-ous sponsors at different placesin my career that made a hugedifference for me just in termsof pulling me aside and givingme a tip or some coaching, orjust watching what I was doingand not being afraid to tell methe truth about it.

Sometimes the truth hurt. Iremember one time at Nabiscowhen Doug Conant, who I’veworked for for many years, [in-cluding at Campbell, where hewas CEO,] pulled me aside and

said that I was so results-drivenand so transaction-oriented thatI wasn’t taking time to build re-lationships. He said that “whenyou build those relationships oftrust, you can then bring yourideas to those relationships andyou’ll get more done. You’ll havemore influence.”

I had been so conscious aboutbeing a working mother, of timespent on the job to deliver re-sults and time spent at home tomake sure the kids were OK, thatI interpreted time spent buildingrelationships as fooling aroundas opposed to, no, that’s seriousbusiness. That was a huge “aha.”

MS. LANDRO: Your career tookyou through many companies be-fore you arrived at CampbellSoup. How did you decide whenit was time to leave a place?MS. MORRISON: I always lookedat my career as, “Where have Ibeen? Where am I now? Andwhere am I going? And what arethe right assignments to getthere?” And if the companywould work with me on deliver-ing those assignments, I was all-in. But if that didn’t happen, [Iwould look at other options.]

MS. LANDRO: Did you have toreach out for those job changesor were you always recruited?MS. MORRISON: In most cases Iwas recruited. But when I was avice president and general man-

ager at Kraft, I pounded thepavement to understand how toget myself on a board of direc-tors. I talked to a lot of recruit-ers to understand the criteriaand skill sets that were requiredto be a good director.

At the time I was told politelythat, “Well, we’re looking for sit-ting CEOs.” And I said, “Well,there are only a couple women.They’re going to be really busy.”

ALAN MURRAY (Wall Street Jour-nal Deputy Managing Editor): Whatrecommendations do you havefor how women can approachbuilding relationships?MS. MORRISON: You always knowsomebody who knows somebody.So call somebody that knows theperson you want to networkwith and have them open thedoor. And then walk through it.And then really understand thequid pro quo—that if they dothis for you, you say to them,“At any point, if I can do any-thing to help you, let me know.”

Women do it all the time intheir personal lives but justdon’t bring those skills to thebusiness world.

Born to Be the BossCampbell Soup’s Chief Executive Denise Morrisonon how she got where she is

THE JOURNAL REPORT: WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY

‘The thing that I learned early on is you really needto set goals in your life, both short-term and long-term,

just like you do in business.’

Online>>ONLINE TODAY: Will women everreach the CEO suite in numbersequal to men? Cast your voteand join the discussion, atWSJ.com/WIE.

‘Women are really good at making

friends and not good at networking.

Men are good at networking and not

necessarily making friends. That’s a

gross generalization. But I think it

holds in many ways. What we have

begun to see is that as women get

into a variety of positions, network-

ing is very important. We really un-

derstand that we have to help each

other.’

MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT, Former U.S. Secretary of StateFor more of Ms. Albright’s remarks, go to WSJ.com/WIE.

VOICES FROM THE CONFERENCE

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