UNM Communication Essentials for Female Executives Case Study For this assignment, analyze and critique the Grant & Taylor (2014) case using the following

UNM Communication Essentials for Female Executives Case Study For this assignment, analyze and critique the Grant & Taylor (2014) case using the following format:

Case overview
Analysis and implication of the case; consider any relevant current events and possible future trends in your analysis, and include sources for this material as well as all information that comes from somewhere else
Ethical implications, social responsibility, and diversity issues with potential solutions or actions
Limitation of the case
Personal perspective of the case
Case summary

Your well-organized/written paper should meet the following requirements:

Be four to six pages in length. Copyright 2013 by Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. For reprints, call HBS Publishing at (800) 545-7685.
BH 584
Business Horizons (2014) 57, 73—83
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor
Communication essentials for female executives to
develop leadership presence: Getting beyond the
barriers of understating accomplishment
Anett D. Grant a,*, Amanda Taylor b
a
b
Executive Speaking, Inc., 60 South 6th Street, Suite 3610, Minneapolis, MN 55402, U.S.A.
University of Minnesota, 207 Lind Hall, 207 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, U.S.A.
KEYWORDS
Communication;
Leadership presence;
Gender;
Accomplishment;
Interviewing
Abstract Statistics about women’s presence as CEOs, directors, and board members
show relative stagnation over the last few years. Many theories exist to explain this
problem, but there is a paucity of specific suggestions targeted at individuals seeking
to rise to the top of their organizations. In this article we propose that changing the
way women talk about accomplishments can improve leadership presence and aid in
promotion. We analyzed video interviews of 20 men and 20 women in leadership roles
at Fortune 50 companies. Since leaders will inevitably confront this when interviewing
for promotions, we chose to focus on the question: ‘‘In your career, what are the
accomplishments you are most proud of?’’ We analyzed content, syntax, gestures, and
facial expressions, and identified significant differences in the way men and women
talked about accomplishment. Based upon our research, we identify six communication essentials that can help women project confidence: (1) starting strong, (2)
staying succinct, (3) dimensionalizing content, (4) owning voice, (5) controlling
movement, and (6) projecting warmth.
# 2013 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
1. Communicating accomplishment
How do women translate high-caliber accomplishments into perceptions of high-caliber leadership?
A woman we will call Jenny led a project that made
$25 million in revenue for a Fortune 50 bank in
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: anett@execspeak.com (A.D. Grant),
tayl0861@umn.edu (A. Taylor)
1 month alone, redesigned a loan servicing system
facilitating the acquisition of several competitors,
and is now the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a
Fortune 50 technology company, but her company
sent her for executive coaching because she lacked
leadership presence. What was it about her communication style that was perceived as lacking leadership presence in spite of all these accomplishments?
Questions like these trouble both women seeking
advancement and those in leadership positions seeking to increase the presence of female leaders.
0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2013 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2013.09.003
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74
A.D. Grant, A. Taylor
Underrepresentation of women at the upper levels of
management is a well-known problem. Women hold
only 16.6% of board seats, 14.3% of executive officer
positions, and 4.2% of CEO roles at Fortune 500
companies (Catalyst, 2012). Explanations vary for
why this problem exists. Some have argued that
men are inherently better at management and business. Others have asserted that with more women in
the pipeline, there will be an increase in women
leaders. Still others claim that factors like education,
family obligation, and work hours explain the differences. However, numerous studies over the last few
decades have proven all of these arguments untrue
(Chênevert & Tremblay, 2002). Yet the problem remains. Why?
This article argues that difficulties in communicating accomplishment contribute to the problem
and presents solutions for enhancing leadership
presence. The research findings reported in this
article represent responses to the question: ‘‘In your
career, what are the accomplishments you are most
proud of?’’ Jenny’s response illustrates where the
disconnect between doing and communicating occurs. After expressions of distaste, ‘ums’ and ‘ahs,’
and laughter, she said: ‘‘I hate that question. I’d
rather talk about opportunities.’’ Jenny isn’t alone
in her discomfort. In the capacity of a private executive speaking coach working with companies that
include (among others) Pfizer, PepsiCo, 3M, Southwest Airlines, and Ralph Lauren, one of our coauthors, Anett Grant, has conducted thousands of
personal, confidential, one-on-one coaching sessions with individuals at all levels and types of
companies. As part of the standard coaching program, Grant interviews the client. These interviews
remain private: clients are aware that neither the
interviews nor the content of their responses will be
shared with supervisors. This level of privacy allows
more open expression of ideas and demonstration of
personal communication style. Grant establishes
relationships with clients before the recorded interviews, which enables unrestrained and natural
responses.
We analyzed video interviews of 20 men and 20
women in leadership roles at Fortune 50 companies
(see Table 1). While not exactly identical, the men
and women were comparable in title as well as in type
Table 1.
of industry. Likewise, the average tenure at time of
visit was 7.53 years for women (15 of 20 known
tenure) and 7.64 years for men (11 of 20 known
tenure).
The similarities in title, industry type, and tenure
enabled us to compare the men’s and women’s
responses in terms of content and style. We wanted
to see what exactly happens at the level of words,
gestures, and facial expressions when executives
are asked to describe their accomplishments since
leaders will inevitably be asked about their accomplishments and qualifications during promotional
interviews. We transcribed the 40 responses and
identified five categories of accomplishment: (1)
use of numbers, (2) description of positive monetary
impact, (3) mentoring, (4) development of products
or processes, and (5) position or longevity at a
company. We selected these categories for two
reasons: every response included at least one
category and all work-related accomplishments fit
accordingly. We used the transcriptions to count
first-person pronoun usage and tracked gestures
and facial expressions through the recordings. The
40 interviews from private coaching sessions spanned
from 2001 to 2012. Names have been changed and
details limited to protect privacy.
We found surprising and significant differences
that all contribute to a greater problem for women
with owning success, demanding recognition, and
projecting confidence. In their 2003 book Women
Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, Babcock and Laschever pose the question: Could it be
that women’s tendency to under-communicate their
performance results is a greater impediment to
success than any perception of their leadership competencies? We argue that these problems with undercommunicating accomplishments present continuing
barriers to women’s advancement and contribute to
ongoing perceptions of women as lacking leadership
presence. These perceptions ‘‘are relevant to women’s career progress’’ (Hoobler, Lemmon, & Wayne,
2011, p. 153). We use our research to identify six
communication essentials that executives–—male and
female alike–—need to acquire and develop to project
confidence: (1) starting strong, (2) staying succinct,
(3) dimensionalizing content, (4) owning voice, (5)
controlling movement, and (6) projecting warmth.
Video interviews
Position
Industry Type
CIO COO
CEO
Vice
President
Director
Manager
Travel
Delivery
Food
Supply
Retail
Industry
Technology
Finance
Medical
Women (20)
1
7
12
2
7
4
4
1
2
Men (20)
3
9
8
1
6
3
8
1
1
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Communication essentials for female executives to develop leadership presence
2. Projecting confidence differently:
The challenges
Tannen (1995, p. 147) pointed out that ‘‘people in
powerful positions are likely to reward styles similar
to their own, because we all tend to take as selfevident the logic of our own styles.’’ This means that,
since men occupy a significant majority of advanced
leadership positions, male candidates receive promotions more frequently (Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011).
Drawing on their own findings and earlier studies,
Furst and Reeves (2008, p. 373) explained:
Women may be passed over for job offers or
promotions in favor of men because males,
who are in a position to hire, are predisposed
to hiring individuals similar to themselves. More
specifically, organizations hire or promote based
on the perceived ‘fit’ of the candidate with
existing top managers–—most of whom are men.
People gravitate to others like themselves, and in
business, that means male leaders tend to gravitate
to male up-and-comers. There are, of course, exceptions, but our findings suggest that linguistic
features contribute to this unconscious bias.
When asked to talk about their accomplishments,
the men in our study were more homogenous in
terms of what they talked about and the length of
their responses. Of the five categories we identified
as present to some degree in all responses (use of
numbers, positive monetary impact, mentoring,
development of products or processes, and position
or longevity), 90% of men listed three or more of
these categories as accomplishments compared to
45% of women; and 90% of men used numbers, cited
their positive monetary impact on the company, and
described products or processes they developed
compared to 45%—55% of women.
Men’s responses were more typical in length. The
average response time for men was 1.52 minutes
while the average for women was 1.79 minutes.
Women spoke 0.27 minutes (16.2 seconds) longer
on average, but women’s response time was more
Figure 1.
75
variable. Of the 20 women’s responses, 8 (or 40%)
fell outside of one standard deviation. An additional
4 of the 20 were either exactly at or within 0.05 of
the standard deviation, meaning that 16 (or 80%)
showed significant variance. Of the 20 men, only 4
(or 20%) fell outside of one standard deviation;
and only an additional 1 of the 20 was at or within
0.05 of the standard deviation, meaning just
25% of the men showed significant variance. Basically, this data indicates that the average male
response was a lot more average than the average
female response in terms of content and length
(see Figure 1).
Our results matched those of other studies that
noted similar phrasing and content of male responses to specific questions. Tannen’s (1994) research showed correspondence in male responses to
those of a study by Anne Statham that asked 22 men
and 18 women managers to talk about their management styles. Statham found similarities in terms
of content and phrasing amongst the responses of
men and women, but while men’s responses were
similar to other men and women’s to the other
women, as groups, the men’s responses were
markedly different from the women’s. Ely et al.
(2011) found that men in leadership development
programs relied on imitation strategies that derived
from modeling mentors–—who were most likely other men–—and more aggressively tried to signal credibility by displaying conforming behaviors. This
helps explain part of the reason why some women’s
communication styles may be perceived as less
‘normal’ by interviewers or leaders. Authority figures subconsciously gravitate toward communication styles that match their own; consequently,
many women may be perceived as not projecting
confidence, authority, and competence.
Numerous advances have been made by women
over the last few decades, but research finds that
persistent second-generation gender bias contributes to the current statistics about (the lack of)
women’s presence at the upper levels of management. Prime, Jonsen, Carter, and Maznevski (2008,
p. 202) found ‘‘strong evidence that stereotyping of
Response efficiency
Number of Men/Women
Out of 20
Response Efficiency: Measured in Number of Categories
(Numbers, Monetary, Mentoring, Projects, and Posion)
10
8
6
4
2
0
Women
Men
5 of 5
4 of 5
3 of 5
2 of 5
1 of 5
Categories
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76
women’s and men’s leadership is widespread among
corporate managers.’’ This agrees with what Ely
et al. (2011) found in their study of managers and
supervisors: that while managers and supervisors
rated women higher than men in leadership competencies, they rated the same women lower in
leadership potential. As a result of their research,
the authors emphasized the importance of educating executives–—many of whom want to develop
and promote women leaders and are puzzled by
the seeming intractability of the problem–—about
second-generation gender bias and differences in
communication and leadership styles. We agree
with this recommendation, but by focusing on the
nitty-gritty details of what is said, how it is said,
and how long it takes to say it, we also endorse
communication essentials that can aid women in
projecting leadership presence.
A.D. Grant, A. Taylor
a senior vice president, said ‘‘um’’ while thinking, but
he immediately launched into his first sentence.
While both hesitancies suggest potential problems
with sentence formation, the quicker response combined with direct eye contact suggested Charlie was
more confident about his answer than Linda. We
observed the same pattern as Charlie with all but 1
of the 6 men with fillers.
Starting strong is a communication essential that
can be developed. Structure supports spontaneity
and helps eliminate the hesitancies that arise from
uncertainty, discomfort, or nervousness. Begin responses by using phrases from the question that set
up the message. This functions as a headline would
in a written list. Mentally structuring responses like
a bulleted list underneath a main point or headline
provides the confidence to eliminate hesitancies
and fillers. When speakers use a structural pattern
for responses, they will respond quickly, be organized, and adapt to unexpected situations.
3. Starting strong
In every arena from sports to the spotlight, starting
strong is important. Public speaking coaches have
been teaching speakers to remove hesitancies and
fillers, particularly at the beginning of a speech, since
the first recorded speaking texts like Aristotle’s On
Rhetoric. Fillers–—words such as ‘um,’ ‘er,’ and ‘ah’–—
contribute significantly to perceptions of the speaker
as lacking confidence or knowledge (Brennan &
Williams, 1995; Clark & Fox Tree, 2002; Corley, MacGregor, & Donaldson, 2007). Studies have also found
that hesitancies and fillers affect language comprehension and contribute to audiences losing attention
or taking a speaker less seriously (Bortfeld, Leon,
Bloom, Schober, & Brennan, 2001). However, Clark
and Fox Tree (2002) found that using fillers is a choice.
In other words, a speaker can learn to reduce or
eliminate them, especially in situations where it is
important to impress with communication style.
We found that 60% of the women (12 of 20) but only
30% of the men (6 of 20) had hesitancies or fillers
while thinking about how to respond to the question.
This indicates that even before speaking, the women
far more frequently engaged in behavior that signals
a lack of confidence. Other nonverbal indicators of
discomfort often accompanied these verbal signals of
uncertainty. For example, Linda, an international
change leader, played with her glass of water,
avoided eye contact, and tilted her head to the side
while repeatedly saying ‘‘um.’’ These behaviors
signaled problems rather than confidence. Longer
pauses combined with shifting position characterized
all but 1 of the 12 women with hesitancies. Several of
the men with hesitancies, however, connected the
filler to the first word and still began quickly. Charlie,
4. Staying succinct
Business settings demand succinct, clear communication, but this can be an area where many executives falter. Tannen (1994, p. 85) noted that
directness in conversation is critically important
in American business settings ‘‘because it is aligned
with power.’’ Her research found that women are
perceived as being less direct than men. Tannen
suggested that this is a result of several factors, such
as women asking questions or making suggestions
rather than direct statements. With her research in
mind, we measured the length of responses for the
Fortune 50 men and women in our study. We uncovered results that, more than a decade later, confirmed many of Tannen’s findings.
On average, women in our study paused longer
before beginning to speak and also spoke longer
overall. Women took 1.2 seconds longer to begin
speaking than men, and women’s average response
length was 16.2 seconds longer. The difference between the medians for women and men was even
greater at 26.4 seconds. These numbers may not
seem that large, but in communication, seconds
can feel like hours. Particularly when expecting a
response, a fidgeting pause of 4.2 seconds–—the
average for women–—filled with ‘um’ and ‘ah’ can
seem substantially longer than the 3-second average
for men. The difference between the medians is
nearly long enough for Usain Bolt to win Gold in the
100-meter dash twice. The nearly 30 additional
seconds for women than men occupies the same
amount of time as a $3.5 million ad during the Super
Bowl, clearly more than enough time to make a big
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Communication essentials for female executives to develop leadership presence
impact on listeners. By taking longer across the
board, women can appear less direct.
Practicing quick-thinking skills and keeping responses to the point promotes the perception of
directness. Just as organization will enable spontaneity in responses and decrease the presence of
fillers and hesitancies, structuring responses will
promote concision. Keep in mind a hierarchy of
information that prioritizes linking a new point to
the central message, identifying the concept or
point, and then illustrating that concept. Continually coming back to the central message after identifying and explaining a notion will keep speakers on
track, organized, and brief.
5. Dimensionalizing content
The very word dimensionalizing implies adding
complexity and depth, just like moving from a flat
2D picture to a robust 3D image. Successful executives will distinguish themselves by enacting this
same process when communicating. Research has
found that women conceive of success differently
(Heslin, 2005; Sturges, 1999). Jane Sturges conducted interviews with 18 male and 18 female
managers at a British company to explore the definition of career success. Her study focused on how
individuals described success rather than on external markers like salary, number of promotions, etc.
Sturges (1999, p. 247) argued that ‘‘the women
managers who took part in this study were more
likely than the men to describe what success meant
to them with reference to internal criteria, especially accomplishment and achievement, and intangible criteria, in particular personal recognition.’’
We contribute by using our findings to specify exactly what those differences are: fewer numbers…
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