The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

When I talk about The Missing 33%®, the first research I cite is from a BusinessWeek cover story published in 2000. In short, the findings were that women "outshine their male counterparts on almost every measure."

In the past 40 years, corporations have tackled the challenge of women's advancement by working diligently on two fronts. They have worked on the women. They help women set career goals and tell them what skills they need to enhance in order to get ahead - leadership, self-promotion, negotiation and more. They have worked on corporate practices and policies. Instituting open job posting, mentoring programs, flexible work, day care options, maternity leave options and more. And they've gotten each of these areas about 66% right. As a result, women have made great strides into middle management. But they have not made great strides into senior leadership. One reason is what I call The Missing 33%™.

While I was away, many of you sent me links to the Harvard Business Review blog asking: Are Women Better Leaders than Men? The authors' assertions are that in an analysis of their 360 feedback reports of over 7000 managers, women were rated as outperforming men in nearly all of them - actually 12 out of 16. BUT hold on a minute! There are 2 major failings in their research. Let's use my definition of leadership to analyze the competencies they measure: