Want to Help Women Rise? Invest in Their Managers.

Why Good Management is Essential to Women’s Professional Success

During a recent conversation over dinner, I encouraged a friend to go for a promotion by applying for an open position one rung above her own. “I’ve barely mastered my current role,” she replied; “there’s no way I’d be good at that job.”

I empathized, but I reminded her that she was more than qualified — and later sent her a link to the LeanIn.Org page that states “Men apply for jobs when they meet 60 percent of the hiring criteria, while women wait until we meet 100 percent.” “Go for it,” I nudged her.

I knew from previous conversations with this friend that no one else had ever suggested she apply for the higher-level job, even though her skills and experience made her a perfect fit. She was facing challenges in her current role — but they had nothing to do with her own competency or work ethic and everything to do with a lack of support. For the past few years, she’s been deluged with ever greater amounts of work and management responsibilities. But her manager has been mostly unsupportive.

My friend’s story isn’t unique. I know many brilliant, capable women who have, at one point in their careers, been held back by poor management. It’s clear that deficiencies in this area disproportionately harm women (especially women of color) and prevent them from reaching their fullest potential.

Of course, they harm men too. But not as much because…

The Confidence Gap is Real

Women are more likely to struggle with low self-confidence, suffer from impostor syndrome, discount our abilities, and blame ourselves for problems that may not actually be our fault. When those responsible for helping us realize our professional potential — our managers — are incompetent or absent, we’re left to rely on ourselves, our peers, and — if we’re lucky enough to have them — our mentors to lift us up. Sometimes that isn’t enough.

I know from personal experience that stellar managers can boost women’s confidence levels more than a million hours of power posing ever could. Make no mistake: This is not about “cheerleading” or showering women with superficial praise. Truly great managers take it upon themselves to provide their staff with the guidance, feedback, and resources they need to excel. For junior female staff especially, that kind of support can make all the difference.

There’s also a trickle-down effect; when female managers receive support, they are, in turn, better equipped to elevate their own staff.

In some cases, all it takes for a less-than-confident female employee to consider requesting a promotion, additional job responsibilities, or a challenging opportunity is encouragement from her boss. I never would have considered going for a leadership role until a former boss (who continues to be my mentor) suggested I do so. Even though I didn’t end up taking that opportunity, the fact that she thought of me in the first place continues to inspire me to be more ambitious — and think more highly of myself — than I ever had before.

… And So Is the Double Standard

When we do obtain the necessary confidence to ask for what we want at work, women are often judged more harshly than men for speaking up assertively — so much more so, according to one study, that our perceived deserved compensation drops twice as much as men’s (by up to $15,000! ) when we are equally aggressive in workplace communication. We’re twice as likely to be called “bossy,” and when we negotiate for higher pay, we’re 30 percent more likely to be labeled “intimidating” and “aggressive” — even by other women.

Women’s managers are in the best position to advocate on our behalf and help us get what we deserve at work without suffering this social penalty. Of course women should ask for what we want (which we don’t do enough), but great supervisors can help validate our requests for higher pay and more responsibility to decision makers, thereby tempering any accusations of bossiness (or a lack of humility — which is another double standard women struggle with). They can also help us navigate workplace politics without being labeled with such slurs.

When inexperienced or incompetent managers don’t have our backs, we’re forced to take these challenges on alone — sometimes by confronting more senior (and therefore more likely male) managers — and risking greater damage to our reputations and relationships than we would if we had our managers’ support (or if we were men). As a woman who tends to land on the more assertive, confrontational side of the conversational spectrum, I feel the need for this support in my work every day.

Let’s Go Beyond Banning Baked Goods

When I was researching for this article, I found countless tips for women about how to empower ourselves in the workplace (“Lean in!” “Speak up!” “Find a mentor!” “Don’t cry!” “Stop apologizing!” “Never bring baked goods to the office lest someone think you’re too warm and feminine!”), but I found far less advice about what women’s employers and coworkers can do to help lift them up.

I’m not suggesting that women shouldn’t take charge of our professional advancement; in many ways it will always be up to us to prove ourselves. But organization leaders must also ask themselves what they can do to help women rise.

Investing in managers is one action they can take. Unfortunately, many organizations don’t do this. The latest McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org report on women in the workplace indicates that less than half of white women and considerably less than half of women of color report that their managers advocate for them, give them stretch assignments, provide advice to help them advance, help them navigate organizational politics, or defend them and their work. In many cases, this is likely because managers have not been properly trained and these expectations have not been clearly laid out for them.

When organizations don’t equip managers to take on these responsibilities, managers themselves and everyone they oversee suffers. But women — especially women of color — often suffer the most. This prevents them, their teams, and the organizations they work for from achieving maximum success.

What Does Investing in Managers Look Like?

Through researching best practices — as well as consulting with colleagues, friends, and mentors — I’ve developed this list of actions that I believe employers can take to help their managers better support their [female] staff. It is by no means all-inclusive, and I hope readers will share additional insights.

The Basics

1. Implement and enforce a strong anti-harassment policy.
2. Hold mandatory, rigorous anti-harassment and discrimination trainings for all managers.
3. Make equity and inclusion official, core organizational values.
4. Establish gender pay equity by evaluating and adjusting not just overall pay discrepancies but also those that may exist across similar roles (e.g. determine whether female directors are paid roughly the same as male directors in comparable roles). Make compensation practices transparent so staff can trust that no inequity exists.
5. Prioritize equity at the top. The gender gap at board and executive levels in the for-profit sector is abysmal, and the nonprofit sector is not doing much better. Without adequate representation at the top, women are less likely to see reaching those levels as a possibility for themselves, and they’re also, of course, less likely to be lifted up by senior female managers. Keep in mind that if an organization is, say, 70% female overall, a 50/50 gender split in leadership shouldn’t necessarily be a bragging right.
6. Relatedly, open new leadership positions to internal application. One of the quickest ways to send a message that female staff are not valued is by promoting a man into a position of power without first allowing similarly qualified [female] staff to apply. Resist assuming that a man is more qualified for any senior role if you haven’t given other applicants a chance to prove themselves.

Going Beyond

1. Hold more in-depth trainings on diversity and cultural sensitivity for all staff. These trainings should go beyond preventing harassment and cover other topics such as inclusive communication, active listening, minimizing unconscious bias and stereotyping, and more.
2. Hold managers responsible for enforcing what they’ve learned in these trainings. Employers should make clear that managers are responsible for personally espousing and disseminating the lessons taught in these trainings.
3. Conduct 360-degree reviews to offer staff the opportunity to provide feedback on their managers’ performance. Ensure these reviews allow staff to assess their managers’ cultural competence; commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and other related topics.
4. Conduct manager surveys to better understand what supervisors’ professional and personal needs are. Implement solutions to support them.
5. Invest in professional development for managers. This includes both management- and skills-based development. For the former, I recommend trainings by The Management Center and the accompanying book, Managing to Change the World.
6. Set clear goals and expectations for managers. Hold them responsible for coaching and developing their staff, providing recognition and feedback, giving them stretch assignments, etc.
7. Don’t let male managers off the hook. Unfortunately, a recent LeanIn.Org survey found that “almost half of male managers are uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman, such as mentoring, working alone, or socializing together.” It’s critical that employers take steps to minimize this fear. As a starting point, I recommend the book Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women.
8. Offer a mentorship program that pairs new, inexperienced managers with more senior, experienced supervisors.
9. Create opportunities for managers to learn from and support each other. This could include offering weekly managers’ meetings centered on a particular topic, article, or book chapter as well as setting up other channels for managers to share tips and resources with one another.
10. Take management seriously as a job responsibility. Staff members are often promoted into management not because they’re cut out to be great managers but because they’ve excelled as individual contributors. Ensure that new managers are made aware that their role requires taking management seriously, and give them the resources and support they need in order to support their staff.
11. Provide alternative opportunities for growth outside management. Some people simply aren’t cut out to be managers or don’t want to manage, and that’s okay. But if their organization doesn’t offer other growth opportunities, they may stagnate, quit, or get stuck managing anyway — to the detriment of themselves and their staff.
12. Encourage a culture of radical candor. Introduced to me by a former boss, this concept has influenced my approach to management more than any other. It involves providing guidance by challenging staff directly while caring about them deeply and personally. I highly recommend watching this talk by the concept’s creator Kim Scott, the so-called CEO coach of Silicon Valley.
13. Minimize office politics and obsession with hierarchy. As the author of this article states, “women have a different experience in the organization than their male counterparts, mostly because the organizations’ dynamics were designed by the people who founded them — basically white men.” Office politics and an excessive emphasis on the organizational hierarchy and chain-of-command can disproportionately harm and hold back women of all races and people of color of all genders.

Although these tips are framed as actions employers can take to help managers improve, there’s no reason why middle-level managers can’t take on a great deal of the responsibility to educate and invest in themselves, learn from other managers, encourage candid feedback, and otherwise hold themselves accountable for ensuring they’re empowering their staff. If you’re a manager, remember that this is not about being perfect. I remind myself of this constantly; while I strive to be the most progressive, supportive manager I can be, I know I’m going to make mistakes and let my staff down sometimes. Failure is just part of the learning process.

Ultimately, these actions will only result in real progress if senior leaders and the managers they oversee truly want women to succeed and understand the importance of making gender (and racial) equity a core organizational priority.