Client: Global Financial Services Organization

The context

One of the largest financial services firms recognized a dilemma: not enough women leaders were being considered for executive positions. The leadership team knew it needed to address the sponsorship and advancement of its women leaders in order to continue fair representation of its membership base. But how?

To make progress in this area, leadership needed to consider the current state of its organizational culture and its readiness for change. This would require examining the values, behaviors, and norms that govern the organization and exploring what might be getting in the way of true progress. This is where ZRG's organizational assessment approach came into view.

Our approach

Any organizational assessment program is based on leveraging qualitative and quantitative data to gauge the current state of the organization and guide leadership decision making going forward. To provide the executive team with solid data to inform their strategy, we worked collaboratively with them to create a specific and thorough interview process, slate of interviewees and questionnaire. The research findings would give substance and perspective to inform the consideration of creating a women’s leadership development program.

The process involved interviews with 16 key executives and two focus groups with high-potential women in the organization. The findings and recommendations were presented to the executive team and next steps were determined. Findings ranged from “headwinds for women in the organization” to “gender behavior differences in the organization” to “business execution and acumen” and “conflicting communication styles.”

Results

• Leadership endorsed a bank-wide pilot program for 12 high potential women leaders.
• 40% of the high potential women in the pilot program have been promoted or had significant job scope increases.
• A second cohort will be selected for a program at the enterprise level due to the success of the pilot in this one line of business.

Our expertise

Organizational Assessment, Women’s Leadership, Leadership Development

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