in multiple studies to inspire creativity, increase profits, and move companies to industry leadership. Today's bottom-up, groundswell strategy of adding more women and talent to the workplace is not working and has left many highly qualified women and men to find their own way through toxic and sometimes illegal barriers in the workplace.
It's time for a new approach that places the responsibility for creating gender-balanced, high-performing organizations squarely in the hands of the very individuals who are in positions of power and can make the change happen: the boards, executives, and leaders within organizations. We should no longer ask women, true leaders, and high performers to play a game they cannot win or be responsible for changing the rules of the game. Instead, they are the reason to change the game. The barriers they experience each and every day have reached staggering and epidemic proportions:
75% of women have reported abuse in the workplace, and 70% of those have been retaliated against. Women can be exceptional leaders, yet only 1 in 5 women holds a C-suite role.
High performers produce 200–500% more than an average employee, yet are targeted by imposter leaders almost 100% of the time, and are more likely than an average performer to leave organizations.
According to Gallup, great leadership is the number-one determinant of a company's success, but less than 25% of leaders today are considered great. How are companies developing the other 75% of their leaders?
Gallup also found that a staggering 35% of managers are actively engaged with their work. While 51% are simply not engaged with their work, an additional 14% are completely checked out, actively disengaged from their responsibilities.2
It's time to show boards, executives, women, and high performers how to create a high-performing workplace by recognizing the barriers, replacing them with more effectual attributes, and redesigning their workplace to create the potential for sustainable growth and industry leadership for years to come.
The good news: the boards and leaders of any company can use this step-by-step guide to attract and to retain top talent in the market, taking their innovation and profits to new heights. I'll show you the key that will unlock the high-performance potential of all employees so that companies can capitalize on new business opportunities and win their industry's war for talent.
Without a plan for high performance in place, these organizations will fail to reach new heights or to maximize their talent. Perhaps companies fail to achieve high performance because (1) they refuse to make the necessary changes or (2) they simply don't know how to effectively integrate high performers and women into their teams and to remove the barriers they face. My bet is on option two.
In fact, most CEOs and C-suite leaders strive to cultivate a high-performing organization, but they are mired in antiquated methods and infrastructures that prohibit them from reaching their own full potential. Organizations are hindered by individuals who are willing to undermine colleagues for the sake of advancing their own careers. Unfortunately, these self-serving individuals are good at playing the game, using a company's culture to their own advantage, at the expense of high performers and shareholders. Today's HR typically chalks these up as “personality conflicts,” never truly addressing the underlying and pervasive issue.
How do talented, high-performing individuals flourish and make an impact in this kind of workplace?
In order for highly talented women and men to succeed, companies must make a shift toward a high-performance system, making it possible for the right individuals to flourish and enabling teams to function at peak capacity. The power, influence, and responsibility for making this shift rests squarely on the board and current executive leaders. Here is the hard truth that competitive companies of the future need to face:
It's time for leaders to stop expecting change to come from the bottom of the organization.
Today's workplace is not designed for high performers to succeed, even if HR successfully recruits a talented and diverse workforce. Individuals who are primarily driven to achieve a title, rather than to produce excellent work, can navigate their way to management or leadership positions (let's call them imposters) by bullying their peers and blocking high performers, especially women, from advancing or achieving success. Imposters are primarily driven by their own personal and professional achievements, resorting to aggressive bullying tactics to defend their turf. Today's true high performers (those who are highly ethical and have integrity, intellect, drive, and great leadership traits while also competing externally) make it because of sheer grit and determination. Most of them do not.
If the imposters are the ones making it to the top and are not the true high performers, then workplaces today are not maximizing the potential of the true top performers and women today in leadership positions. What would it take for a company to make this shift to a culture and infrastructure system that allows high performers to succeed and for gender balance to become the norm while minimizing the harm caused by imposters? If companies want to retain excellent employees, to maximize profits, and to ensure that only the best performers advance to key leadership roles, including the C-suite, then what is the one thing that will make the shift possible?
It's time for leaders to stop expecting change to come from the bottom of the organization.
To make change happen, companies must adopt a top-down approach. The responsibility for making a shift to high performance rests solely on the current board and C-suite's shoulders, the same people who are responsible for creating the high-performing organization. In defining the roles and responsibilities involved in making this shift, we need to get a handle on the key players who can make this vitally important change happen.
Roles for Leaders at the Top to Make the Shift
| Board | Executive Team |
| Strategic direction | Execute strategic direction |
| High-level goals | Responsible for profits and shareholder value |
| Hire CEO | Awareness of the competition |
| Hire key C-suite positions | Manage the firm's resources |
| Guidance and accountability | Make decisions on talent |
Boards set the strategic direction for the organization. They are typically comprised of high-level leaders from a variety of industries who are paid to provide oversight and diversity of thought and experiences. Boards establish talent and succession planning, set the business strategy, and ensure appropriate capital deployment. They recruit the CEO and are typically involved in the hiring of key positions, including the C-suite, those corporate officers, whose titles begin with C (e.g., CFO, COO, CIO, or CTO). They are the guiding force of the organization. Accountability for the success of the company starts with them.
The executive leadership team executes the strategic direction. C-suite executives have highly impactful and coveted
