Women will create value if given a chance in top slots
More people recognise the excellent role women play in business even though women are still under-represented in top leadership positions.
While it’s desired that more women should get into management positions, it is still unclear how many companies encourage women into top slots in their establishments. A high powered panel featuring prominent chartered accountants and corporate leaders shared their thoughts on the greater role women can play in business at a breakfast meeting organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka recently.
While the panel comprising Husein Esufally, Group Chairman Hemas Holdings PLC; Kasturi C. Wilson, Managing Director – Transportation Sector Hemas Holdings PLC; Jonathan Alles, CEO HNB; Chiranthi Cooray, Chief Human Resources Officer HNB; Nilanthi Sivapragasam, CFO Aitken Spence PLC; Jacintha Patrick, Partner SJMS Associates and Shamila Jayasekara, Partner KPMG collectively recognised the difference women business leaders make in the companies they work for, it was debated whether ‘glass ceilings’ still exist for females trying to climb the corporate ladder.
The discussion titled ‘Creating Value Through Diversity’ focused on why women continue to be under-represented in senior management positions, despite possessing the knowledge and skills to reach the top of the corporate world.
Recognising women business leaders for the strength they bring can lead to increased revenues, increased innovation, and an increase in quality in the workplace, according to all the women panellists, while all participants agreed that much more can be done to assert the value women bring to businesses. But they are still grossly under-represented at the top and over-represented at the bottom of the most influential leadership hierarchies.
They all agreed that women should play a much greater role in the corporate sector. Further, the principles of good governance require that recruitments and evaluations be based on objective criteria, reflecting gender diversity were discussed at length.It was discussed that most women aiming at the hot seats make the blunder of mimicking the leadership styles of their male peers. On the sidelines of this event, many women participants told the Business Times that many tend to be ‘tough’, which may always not work to their favour. Many also commented that ‘thinking like a dude’, won’t get women far in their carriers.
Many women that the Business Times spoke to after this panel discussion said that ‘female qualities’ enable far greater success for women and it’s important to ‘’channel your inner swagger’, while ditching the cold, heartless and cruel stance that many women in top posts try to project.
At the panel discussion, Ms. Sivapragasam noted that women’s under-representation in positions of power spawned a rising array of committees, commissions, consultants and conferences but while “we have made significant progress in understanding the problem, we remain a daunting distance from solving it”.The panel discussion was organised to commemorate the International Women’s Day.