Becker's Hospital Review

40 POPULATION HEALTH 40 CEO/STRATEGY percent) of female clinician-researchers reported sexual harassment in a survey published in JAMA in 2016, and among those who did, 47 percent reported these events had a negative effect on their career. An informal Medscape poll puts those numbers even higher, with 71 percent of female physicians reporting sexual harassment on the job, compared to 25 percent of their male counterparts. How to avoid the glass cliff If a female candidate is promoted aer an executive is dismissed for sexual misconduct, the board needs to carefully manage that transition so the executive and organization understand she was chosen for her talents and experiences, not as a patch for a sticky PR situation. is distinction is critical because organizations oen promote women or minorities to lead in difficult times. So oen, in fact, the phenomenon has a name: the "glass cliff." Researchers Michelle Ryan, PhD, and Alexander Haslam, PhD, first noticed the glass cliff in 2005 when they found women were starting to secure more board seats, but compared to their male peers, the seats they took were disproportionately volatile — the firms were performing poorly or in the midst of a crisis. A common example of the glass cliff is Marissa Mayer, who was appointed CEO of Yahoo in 2012. She took the helm at a particularly tough time for the tech firm, which had been losing to Google in search and had cycled through four CEOs in four years. She led the firm for five years and was ultimately ousted during the Verizon acquisition, shortly aer being crowned the "least likeable CEO in tech" by Owler. Researchers have attempted to understand why glass cliffs occur. A study published by e British Psychological Society in 2010 indicates gender and leadership stereotypes may be at play: Companies see a crisis or downturn as an indicator it's time to change the status quo, and they also see female leaders as possessing the skills to lead during tumultuous times. A woman becomes the token female leader tasked with harmonizing and nurturing an organization aer crisis. She may also be more likely to fail; and if she does, organizations may be compelled to return to the status quo. However, this can be avoided. When more women lead, organizations are less likely to attribute the failure of one woman to her gender. Researchers Susanne Bruckmüller, PhD, and Nyla Branscombe, PhD, note: "Merely mentioning that the organization has had women leaders was sufficient for the glass cliff to disappear. is suggests that an effective way to avoid the emergence of glass cliffs in corporate settings would be to strive for a more diverse management." Eliminating the glass cliff requires long-term commitment from boards to increase gender diversity at the executive level. When a female executive vacates a role, boards should consider filling that spot with another qualified, diverse pick — something that doesn't actually happen that oen. For example, between 2009 and 2017, just three of 19 female CEOs of S&P 500 companies were replaced with another woman, according to Bloomberg. Aer Ms. Mayer, Yahoo installed omas McInerney as CEO, and paid him twice the base salary Ms. Mayer received. "We're not asking our organizations just to hire or promote women just because they are women," Ms. Hardy-Waller said. "I mean we are asking them to consider women who are actually hiding in plain sight, who clearly meet — and most times exceed — expectations for a role. It's an opportunity to give them a chance and begin to level the playing field." A more immediate solution for the glass cliff aer #MeToo involves distancing the choice of a successor from the situation at hand through documented executive search procedures. "e ultimate goal is to try to identify the individual who can best meet the needs of an organization; articulate the knowledge, skills and experience you are looking for, and if you find that in the executive, you can articulate that and it should be obvious to all," Mr. Howell said. Beyond #MeToo Making decisions about executive appointments post-#MeToo will require a significant amount of self-awareness in boardrooms, which are still disproportionately white and male. In 2016, 27.8 percent of new board appointees were women — a 2-percentage-point decline from 2015, according to the 2017 "Board Monitor" report from executive search and consulting firm Heidrick & Struggles. Just 22 percent of new board appointees were racially or ethnically diverse. "Because most boardrooms are primarily made up of white males, I think the #MeToo movement has really clearly heightened the anxiety for what we do next," Ms. Hardy-Waller said. "Hopefully the movement has instilled enough [in those board members] to persuade them to think more deliberately about including women in the process. It clearly raises awareness around gender diversity on boards and also around the fact that we've been experiencing this systemic sexism for way, way too long." In healthcare, this moment of introspection for boards and C-level executives comes at an opportune time, when many baby boomers are ready to retire from their leadership posts. "Replacing those individuals, I think, provides the greatest opportunity for diversity for identifying talented women and putting them into leadership positions — and much more so than the current situation, which will be seen by many as reactive," Mr. Howell said. Even beyond executive roles and board seats, organizations can use momentum behind the #MeToo movement to more broadly address some of the more insidious issues all women face in the workplace. "It goes beyond sexual harassment. It's pay equity, lack of job promotion and it's limited board opportunities," Ms. Hardy-Waller said. "I would love to see how we could expand [#MeToo] across all industries, across all sexism we experience. en the question becomes: Beyond that, how do we take it to the next level and begin to hold organizations accountable for allowing [systemic sexism] to happen in their organizations?" n "We're not asking our organizations just to hire or promote women just because they are women. I mean we are asking them to consider women who are actually hiding in plain sight, who clearly meet — and most times exceed — expectations for a role." — Antoinette Hardy-Waller, RN, BSN, Founder and CEO of The Leverage Network

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