This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 17, 2017 - July 23, 2017

When it comes to careers, there is a stubborn theory that women are less ambitious than men. With age and motherhood, the story goes, women lower their career goals. They miss out on the top roles at organisations not because they can’t do them, or because the opportunity is not there, but because they don’t really want them.

The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) research demonstrates that this is simply not true. The problem is neither inherent nor related to age or motherhood — it hinges on the day-to-day experiences of women at work. Ambition is not a fixed attribute but is nurtured, or damaged, by the daily interactions, conversations and opportunities that women face over time. The good news is that these factors are entirely within an organisation’s control and the issue is more nuanced and more solvable than we may think.

Organisations and CEOs need to take conscious steps to make leadership more inclusive and aspirational — thus improving the diversity of their senior teams and, ultimately, the bottom line. But, do they have the right perspective on the issue of the “Gender Ambition Gap”? At BCG, we have taken a reality check and major insights surfaced from our employee survey data from two global data sources comprising more than 200,000 respondents.

Women start their careers with as much ambition as men, or more. First and foremost, our data shows that on average women enter the workforce with the same or higher levels of ambition as men, in terms of their desire to hold leadership positions or be promoted.

Having children does not make women less ambitious. Our data on women’s ambition and motherhood may be surprising, but it is also unequivocal: having children does not affect women’s desire to lead. The ambition levels of women with children and women without children track each other almost exactly over time.

Ambition is influenced by the organisation’s culture. When both male and female employees feel that gender diversity at their organisation is improving, there is no ambition gap between genders. In other words, women aspire to leadership roles in companies that have a positive work environment and value diversity. Conversely, at organisations where employees of both genders report the least progress on diversity, an ambition gap opens up between men and women. The research also points out that the leadership of the organisation has a significant influence on ambition levels, regardless of societal constraints.

Positive steps benefit all employees, not just women. Finally, creating a culture that enables more women to be ambitious does not put men at a disadvantage. Among the best companies — those showing the most progress on gender equality — both women and men are more ambitious. There are clearly many factors at work, but our data shows that the gains of women do not come at the expense of men.

Collectively, these insights not only demolish the myths about women’s ambition levels, but also provide a direction for organisations to strategise four key steps towards building the right mix.

1. Build a gender-diverse leadership team with the right role models. In hiring, CEOs, for instance, need to demand gender-balanced lists of candidates for all open positions and make objective hiring decisions based on quantifiable data. Companies also need to avoid gender-specific terms like “IT wizards” in job postings. Regarding promotions, leaders should review the company’s evaluation system to identify and eliminate any gender-based bias. In addition, companies should train managers in how to develop employees and deliver feedback based on their strengths.

    The right role models are crucial. Even the most promising executives would not reach the leadership team if they do not buy into the company’s diversity agenda. In addition, CEOs should take some risks in hiring. Some of the best leaders may have followed a meandering path to their current position. The road to the C-suite is not a single track, and leaders do not come in only one flavour.

2. Change the informal context. A person’s experience at work consists of countless small interactions, and the leadership environment at many companies can feel like a familiar set of masculine tropes. As Sallie Krawcheck, a former Wall Street executive and current CEO of Ellevest (a women-focused investment platform), put it in a recent LinkedIn posting, “It’s simply exhausting to act like something you’re not all of the time. I can’t tell you how many women have told me that this was a contributing factor to their leaving the workforce, because every day they had to go into work and act like someone they’re not.”

    The leadership of an organisation should ask senior managers and executive team members about the occasions when they are the most engaged at work — when they feel most connected with their senior colleagues and are most relaxed in their organisation. Are there women present on these occasions? If not, why not? If so, are the women also enjoying themselves?

3. Make and relentlessly promote structural changes such as flexible work. Data from one of our surveys tells us that both men and women view flexible work as the most effective way to improve diversity. The data also shows that the main reason both men and women may be reluctant to advance at their company — cited by nearly 60% of both genders — is the challenge of meeting increased job responsibilities while managing outside commitments.

    Organisations should address this concern head-on by offering parental leave, part-time work, job pauses, job-shares and annual leave buybacks to everyone, including senior leaders. In addition, they need to actively encourage men to take advantage of these policies. CEOs should work to eliminate any stigma for, and instead celebrate, those who take advantage of these programmes. For example, organisations can congratulate the father who spends Fridays with his children, instead of the one who logs the most air miles or work-related travel. Such small, everyday moments can clarify the organisation’s priorities and reinforce the culture.

4. Track progress and involve everybody. Leaders should track the progress of their organisation towards gender diversity and create incentives for everyone to participate in the journey. Our research shows that diversity efforts are most effective when linked to outcomes. For example, executive compensation could be pegged to the level of gender diversity in the business. Organisations should consider promoting managers who have strong female candidates in their succession pipeline (or they should at least challenge those who don’t).Transparency is key. Organisations should communicate their progress, celebrate both effort and outcomes and identify where they still have work to do.

Many organisations are now taking steps to create more balanced leadership teams. For example, they run women-only training sessions, send women on leadership courses and hire senior women to serve as role models. These are admirable steps, but they are ultimately not enough. Likewise, telling women simply to try harder at a game in which the rules are stacked against them may create some fantastic, isolated successes but it may not lead to a meaningful breakthrough.

Women are ambitious and rational and where leadership looks both attractive and possible, they would aspire to become leaders. Otherwise, they would make the reasonable decision to opt out. Organisations should not allow this opportunity to go away.

Nor Azah Razali is a partner and managing director at The Boston Consulting Group

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