Who you are today is a reflection of your experience. Who you will become tomorrow will depend on the experiences you are yet to choose.
—Authors Caroline Kersten and Sapna Welsh
Business is moving at lightning speed, becoming ever more global, requiring both stellar leadership and great adaptability to succeed. Consider this, of the companies listed on the Fortune 500 in 1955, only 61 (or 12 percent) remained in 2014. That means 88 percent of the original companies either went bankrupt, merged, or fell from grace due to decreased total revenues. About 50 years ago, the life expectancy of a firm in the Fortune 500 was around 75 years. Today, it’s less than 15 years and declining (Levensaler 2016). Companies do not simply decline because they fail to strive for better, but because leadership may not be asking the right questions, vetting diverse perspectives and solutions, or is reluctant to implement those solutions. A current dilemma, however, that executives are keenly aware of is the lack of leaders to drive business imperatives. Despite a 39 percent increase in corporate spending on leadership development in the US alone, there is a growing leadership crisis (HBR 2014). This is the moment in time when organizations can evolve and thrive by asking themselves what they can do to attract and retain top talent to build robust leadership pipelines. Top talent by definition is inclusive of both men and women. However, women are still lagging behind. After reaching an all-time high of 32 in 2017, the number of female Fortune 500 Chief Officers has slid back down to 24 resulting in a one-year decline of 25 percent (Fortune 2018).
We train and coach diverse talent to prepare them for next level roles. We also work with organizations to grow and diversify their leadership pipelines, with a cultivated specialty in increasing the number of women leaders. Diversifying leadership pipelines will require the commitment of both men and women in organizations. Leadership development among diverse groups is the red thread that runs throughout our careers from being on the ground floor for the launch on the Women’s Initiative at Deloitte, to leading the inclusion strategy for JPMC T&O, as well as speaking multiple languages and working and residing in numerous nations. In 2013, we released research on the crest of women rising into leadership roles. Inspired by hundreds of interviews with impressive women leaders, we published our research on how women could continue to advance their careers through the non-traditional approach of expatriation. In 2017, we introduced the Gender Parity SpotlightTM (GPS) survey to help spotlight and measure what women in their respective organizations see as facilitating and impeding factors to their upward career transition. In 2018, we released GPS research on barriers stopping women from taking next level roles.
In response to swelling organizational demands to grow and diversify talent pipelines, we decided to write this book to re-energize the effort to support aspiring women accelerate their leadership trajectory by leveraging the most powerful development tool—working and living abroad (Hogan 2009).
Research Methodology
The foundation of this book lies in extensive primary and secondary research. A special mention to Prof. Dr. Anja Karlshaus, Dr. Charles M. Vance, and Shawn Garrett for reviewing the script, and Dr. Zachary Kalinoski for his superior data analysis and reporting skills.
In order to determine some of the most prevalent barriers women face when moving into leadership roles, we used the GPS survey. See Appendix A for additional details. The GPS provides a measurable way for organizations to create a customized, targeted strategy to retain and grow their talented women. Barriers are measured across three dimensions:
- Individual: Barriers that women impose upon themselves. Do self-limiting beliefs and behavior hold women back from pursuing leadership roles?
- Organizational: Barriers that women perceive the organization is imposing. Do women perceive that their employer is well equipped to develop and promote women to leadership roles?
- Transitional: Barriers to women’s transition readiness. Do women believe they are prepared for a transition into a next level role?
Each dimension captures a grouping of barriers stopping women from moving into leadership roles. The higher the barriers are, the greater the risk of women leaving the leadership track or leaving the organization altogether. The goal is for organizations to have a low risk score, which indicates that they have few barriers preventing women from moving into leadership. In November 2017, we used the GPS to compile new research based on the responses of over 1,000 career women in 24 industry sectors in multiple countries to better understand what barriers women perceive are standing in their way to a next level role.
For our research on expatriate experience, we interviewed women in senior-level expatriate roles (WiSER) from all corners of the globe who shared their own strategies to overcome challenges, and succeed, when working abroad. For the purpose of this book, the term expatriate is defined as individuals who establish their residence in the territory of another country for a temporary period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months and a maximum of five years per assignment, having previously been resident in another country. We have intentionally refrained from further defining the term expatriate and have elected not to include points such as benefits packages, retirement packages, guaranteed or non-guaranteed employment upon return, and so forth. This decision was based on our determination that these types of variables are not related to leadership development. The intent of the research was to identify shared behaviors for success in an international assignment. The women we interviewed fell into the categories of C-level, executive, or emerging executive. We validated their seniority based on various criteria, including (but not limited to) title, span of control (number of staff and geographical responsibility), salary, and budget managed. The sample group represented a broad range of age, nationality, marital status, and industry sectors. Among the finalized sample group, we interviewed 62 women representing 150 expatriate assignments. See Appendix B for additional details.
These interviews, along with the subsequent analysis, constitute the most comprehensive research on professional expatriate women to date. The WiSER we interviewed are amazing women who held challenging roles across the globe. We cannot but admire their commitment, their professionalism, and their achievements. A few of their career highlights include:
- “Top 25 Most Influential Female Engineers in Germany” in 2012.
- Most senior woman in Bayer and the first female expatriate in the C-Suite in this organization.
- First woman to lead her organization’s office in Egypt, in all of the 50 years that CARE had been there.
- Set up the first Africa regional recruitment office for World Vision Africa.
- Led the IPO for Amazon.com.
- Expatriate in the Arctic Circle.
- Global Chair of the Board of Fair Trade International.
Throughout this book, leaders share, with refreshing candor, their professional and personal stories including challenges they were forced to overcome, and the steps they took to manage their career. These stories reflect both self-initiated and organization induced expatriate experiences.