BENCHMARKING STUDY 
          
         PHASE 1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: 
         Challenges Women Leaders Face from the 
         Perspectives of Female Leaders, Male 
         Executives, and Human Resources 
         Professionals 
         September, 2019
                                                                    
               
                    
                                                                    
          
          
                             Table of Contents 
         I.  Executive Summary                                    2 
            Process: Who & How                                    3 
            Outcomes                                              4 
            Summary Findings: Biggest Challenges Women Face       4 
         II.  ​Breaking Down The Challenges                       5 
            1. Self-Doubt                                         5 
            2. Work/Life Priorities                               6 
            3. Effective Communication                            6 
            Limiting Beliefs                                      8 
         III. ​Fears & Desires                                    9 
            Biggest Fears                                         9 
            Biggest Desires                                      1​0 
         IV. ​Costs for Women & Organizations                     1​1 
            Costs to Women                                        1​1 
            Costs to the Organization                            1​2 
         V.  ​What is Needed                                     1​3 
            Coaching                                             1​3 
            Leadership Role Modeling                             1​4 
            Sponsorship                                          1​4 
            Mentoring                                            1​5 
         VI. ​The Proposed Solution                              1​6 
             ​BOLD Lead​her​ship Framework                       1​6 
             ​Sample Content                                     16 
             BOLD Manifesto                                      1​8 
         VII. ​Conclusions & Next Steps                          19 
            Good News                                            20 
            Bad News                                             20 
            Next Steps                                           2​1 
         VIII. ​Parting Words                                    2​2 
         IX.  Gisele Garcia Shelley Bio                          24 
                                
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        I.  Executive Summary 
        As an executive coach and organization development consultant for 25+ years, I 
        frequently see leadership teams requesting women to speak up, push back, bring 
        more of themselves into the team. Coaching these competent, successful women 
        one-on-one and in group coaching, they often talk about their fear and lack of 
        courage to step up and share their brilliance with the rest of the team and 
        organization. Through coaching, they often break through. 
        My hypothesis, based on these breakthroughs, was that when women drop their 
        limiting beliefs, become willing to shift behaviors and have support around them, 
        they unleash their maximum potential to contribute and shine. 
        It got me wondering… How were women and key stakeholders viewing what was 
        getting in their way? What themes and patterns could be identified and addressed 
        to break through these dynamics? What solutions did they think would help close 
        the gap? These questions propelled me towards this research.   
        The intention of this study is to identify the biggest challenges women leaders face, 
        from the points of view of three different stakeholder groups (male and female 
        executives, and HR professionals).  
        This report will share the main ways women operationalize these challenges, what 
        their fears and desires are, what it is costing them and the organization, and how 
        stakeholders are perceiving them. We will suggest steps they can tangibly take to 
        move forward and conclude with a possible solution to meet the stated needs and 
        desires of the women and the organizations. 
                             
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         Process: Who & How 
         This Summary of Findings is a result of almost 30 interviews with male, female, and 
         HR executives for a total of almost 20 organizations.  
         The company breakdown is: 
            ● Majority Fortune 500 companies, with almost all being Fortune 100 
            ● Three private companies (worth $500m - $20b) 
            ● Three European-based companies with rest being US-based with global 
              operations 
            ● Two mid-cap companies 
            ● One mission-driven organization 
         Twelve different industries were included: Automotive, Consumer Food, Custom 
         Goods and Products, Luxury Goods, Financial Services, Hospitality, Industrial 
         Manufacturing, Retail, and Technology (Semiconductor, E-commerce, Imaging and 
         Electronics). In short, no matter what the industry, the themes emerged across the 
         board, with slightly more concern being raised about women’s leadership in 
         technical companies or technical-related roles. 
         Female executives interviewed were primarily VP with some at the SVP and senior 
         director levels. When interviewing HR professionals who were women, they 
         answered from their own point of view as women executives as well as HR 
         professionals.  They were either heads of HR or Global HR Learning Leaders, VP’s of 
         Coaching or Diversity & Inclusion, Global Directors of Talent Development or 
         Learning and Development. 
         Male executives were primarily CEOs or C-suite executives. There is a built-in bias 
         with the men I spoke with because they were all either clients who would be willing 
         to have this conversation, or were referrals because they would be willing to engage 
         on this topic. Therefore, it does not represent a random sample of male executives. I 
         will continue to conduct interviews to see if the perspectives remain the same or 
         change in any way.  
         Due to the high level of authentic, vulnerable conversations with the majority of all 
         interviews, the participants and their companies will remain anonymous. 
                                
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