Ceresa Leadership Philosophy: A Whole Person Approach

Perspectives
Written By Guest User

A person's ability to bring their best self to work depends on satisfactorily meeting personal demands and feeling supported in the work setting.

 

Within Ceresa, we track the specific goals of our participants. This data reveals a clear need for support across a broad range of holistic topics. For participants in Ceresa’s program, the most common category of goals is “balance, wellness and meaning” – how people find the space to thrive across their whole being. The second category is career advancement – both near term career goals and long-term planning. The third category is communications and confidence. Beyond this, there is also a range of personal relationships and professional skills where emerging leaders are seeking support.

When we contrast this with the topics on which people typically receive feedback, there is a significant misalignment. We see this in the 360 feedback each participant gets as part of the Ceresa program, where 48% of feedback from colleagues is on communications and confidence. When we drill down to specific pieces of feedback (over 2000 items of feedback), we see that 15% are about women’s operating style. Examples include: “you are too unfriendly,” “you could be more approachable,” or “you are too direct.”

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By contrast, only 3% of feedback touches on career advancement, 9% on balance, and there is no mention at all of support or advice around challenges with personal, family, or community relationships.

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Research shows that while women tend to receive mentoring focused on their operating style, men receive more career-oriented guidance. As part of performance reviews, women are described as “too aggressive”....3 times more than men.  Overall, women receive 1.4 times more critical subjective feedback compared with their male peers. Women also tend to receive more vague feedback. A Stanford study found 60% of men receive feedback tied to specific business performance drivers compared with 40% of women, helping make stronger cases for promotion for men.

This is especially true for women, who more often than not face the “double burden” or “second shift.” Multiple research studies have found that women shoulder the lion’s share of household and career work and the associated mental load, even in dual-income heterosexual households – and even where women are the primary breadwinners. Furthermore, women are penalized in their careers for starting families – considered by 40% of people to be less devoted to their work.

These challenges translate into a “broken rung” for women at the first-time manager level, with only 72 women being promoted for every 100 of their male peers (despite almost even gender representation at entry-level positions). This starts a cascade effect such that there are fewer women available at VP levels for promotion to C-suite. Addressing the whole-person needs during this crucial mid-career period is critical to enabling more diverse leaders to thrive.

Tips

  • Ensure women and other under-represented minorities on your team receive specific, career-oriented feedback and guidance in performance reviews. Do not shy away from providing specific, tangible feedback.

  • Don’t share verbatim qualitative comments in performance reviews, since bias has a higher likelihood of emerging through subjective comments.

  • Normalize flexible schedules, rather than having them as the exception, so there is less penalty for those requiring them.

  • Consider incorporating mental health resources to provide additional support for those facing increased anxiety or stress about the burdens they face.

Resources

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