Less talk, more action

I am trying to muster up a Pollyanna type smile. Really! It’s great news that the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD)is announcing a new scholarship program to help increase the number of women on company boards.

The program is aimed at women who are almost board-ready and need extra skills to secure the directorships. And we cringe when we are reminded yet again that the proportion of female board members on the ASX 200 companies is less than 10%.

But this particular solution is like applying a bandaid to a perfectly healthy bit of skin. There are loads of clever, board-ready women, willing and waiting to take up positions on Australia’s boards. And there are plenty of men on our boards who quite frankly should take up more golf.

Education is helpful. But what we really need to improve the leadership calibre of boardrooms in both large and small business is hard action and less chat. We need to set targets and quotas. We need to name and shame. And we need to applaud those men who are taking a stand and making sure that when they sit around a mahogany table, it is not like looking in a mirror.

Yesterday, Labor pledged to set a target of 40% female representation on government boards over the next five years. They should romp that home, as women already hold 33.4% of federal board positions. The Australian Securities Exchange will also require its listed companies to spell out policies for promoting women in annual reports published from next year.

Prominent members of the establishment are also speaking out. Veteran networker David Gonski has criticised his gang, saying he is disappointed in himself and business for the poor representation of women at board level. And there is movement in the boardrooms.

I was talking to a board director yesterday who told me that he decided to do something about the poor representation of women on his board – he had none – and contacted an agency that helps source women for boards. He received more than 50 applications, most of them eminently suitable. In fact he was spoilt for choice.

“I had no idea there were so many fantastic women out there,” he enthused.

What can you do as the owner of a small and medium business? Well, if you haven’t got women on your board, dig out your shareholder’s agreement, look at the composition of people on your board and go and get a few women. That’s the first step. Second is to ensure that when any male in your organisation hires staff, he includes women in the potential interview pool.

I once pointed out to my sales director that he kept hiring men who looked, like him, thought like him and sounded like him. He denied it so I ran through the recent staff he had hired. Then he argued that he wasn’t going to hire a woman for the sake of it: he wanted the best person for the job.

But what about if you are recruiting with a pair of blinkers on? What if you can’t see the best person for the job because of preconception about what the best person looked like?

He wasn’t convinced, so I told him that half the people he interviewed for the job had to be women. Guess what? He hired a woman.