Disruptive Technology – A golden opportunity for women leaders

In a world where modern businesses are shifting rapidly, leaders at all levels are beginning to notice the importance of embracing disruptive trends and technologies to increase their likelihood of success. Disruptive trends can cover a wide range of technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT and other smart technologies.  Whether we like it or not, embracing disruption as a series of change initiatives will be an undeniable aspect of business and critical to the success of every leader. Disruptive trends will continue to create opportunities for organizations to quickly develop new capabilities and gain a competitive advantage in their markets. 

Where will companies find the talent to lead these change initiatives during this age of disruption that many industry analysts say is the 4th industrial revolution?  Whenever you hear terms like Machine Learning and AI, the first talent pools to look at should be women across most functions who already demonstrate key competencies to take on these leadership roles. Unfortunately, both organizations make the costly mistake of looking outside their organizations first for this talent. 

For women who are working inside organizations and have a passion for solving complex problems and breaking down silos between organizational departments and functions, run, and not walk, to the innovation group or business transformation department. You can begin by checking out job postings you may have previously ignored. 

And HR and talent executives, listen up – please! Consider taking a closer look at your criteria for high-potential talent and look inside your HR and talent groups! You would be amazed to discover where there are other sleeping giants in your organizations. It should not surprise you to hear that the talent pool for leaders of disruptive technology, transformation and change initiatives frequently do not succeed when they come from finance, IT, sales, consulting or R&D. Any assumptions about the amount of upskilling needed for women to move into these roles may also not be accurate. 

Women 2.0 recently published an article focused on the value of women in intrapreneurial roles inside organizations. Women are uniquely qualified to move disruptive initiatives forward by assuming leadership roles as organizational intrapreneurs. They understand their own organizations and have the user knowledge and relationships with influencers to bring people along. The article states that “Like entrepreneurs who embrace innovative challenges as they develop and manage their business venture, intrapreneurs are similarly both passionate and risk-tolerant, leveraging qualities like empathy, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration to transform their organizations…companies can tap into the power of intrapreneurship to creatively solve problems and compete in a highly digital and increasingly automated business world.” 

Before jumping to a conclusion that moving women into leadership roles as intrapreneurs is not feasible or too risky, think again. You may want to review the hard data we gathered from other sources that proves how and where women add value both strategically and to the bottom line of large and mid-sized organizations. 

Paradigm4Parity has a plethora of data that could help you easily make the business case. At the end of the day, the most compelling information is proof of performance — to support this we found another study which revealed that women score higher than men in 12 of 16 competencies that focus on what most of modern business is centered on today — speed, experience and technology designed around humans. Women naturally have leadership behaviors such as initiative, driving results, collaboration, drive and openness to change. While these findings are interesting, another question worth asking is where in organizations women can add the most value.

Again, the data is beyond encouraging! In almost any functional area, the same study shared 360 degree feedback on the effectiveness of women vs. men. In the chart below, we can see that women were rated higher on their effectiveness in almost all functional areas. 

Time and time again, the data points tell us to increase our level of urgency around the strategic value of attracting, developing and retaining women for leadership roles at all levels and in any function along with specific focus on disruptive technology roles.

For those organizations with initiatives focused on empowering employees (especially women and minorities), and take charge of their development and growth, invite women from all generations to explore roles in business transformation, innovation, organization intrapreneurial initiatives, or any function where embracing disruptive technology would likely help your company gain or maintain a competitive advantage. There may be fewer skill gaps than you think.