A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom: The Roadmap

Citation

Hughes, L.W. (2009), "A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom: The Roadmap", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 30 No. 7, pp. 687-688. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910991709

Thomson and Graham (2005) published A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom. Their worked blazed a path for A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom: The Roadmap. Where the first volume was an academic explanation of the necessity and value of cross company mentoring for empowering women's success, The Roadmap is a “how to” for accomplishing this end. The slim volume builds a case for the value of exploring the untapped talent offered by women in organizations and offering both a mentoring plan and path by which a woman can navigate the various obstacles to a management career path.

This book and its earlier companion are not apologetic nor are they a treatise of criticism of an inequitable and unfair situation. The Roadmap is a practical guide containing research‐supported advice to empower people to develop effective networks and to develop, and present, a resume that speaks of success. The phrase “empower people” was intended to be non‐gender specific because Thomson et al.'s work is applicable to anyone's career progress, regardless of sex. This volume is a “must read” not only for women and men in middle management who have career aspirations, but also to the incumbents of top management teams. The message to the latter is, “Wake up to the talent in your organization, empower this strength, and remove the obstacles in order to leverage it.”

Following the authors' introductory comments, ten chapters comprise The Roadmap. Each contains practical suggestions, supported in many cases by academic research findings, as well as case examples and end of chapter questions that have been designed for the purpose of aiding the reader to self‐reflect and apply realizations toward self‐development. The chapters fall into one of three informal categories: engaging in the workplace, planning for career success, and implementing the plan.

In the opening chapter, the authors define what they call “the state of play.” This is a summary of the reality: the statistics for women on boards in both the UK and the USA, a brief discussion of the progress of their mentoring program, and the roadmap itself. The remainder of the book builds onto this introductory foundation. The opening provides the context for the women seeking board positions, in the category of “engaging in the workplace.” The authors then lay down the written and unwritten rules of attaining board membership. In the second chapter, the authors argue that women who are interested in pursuing the top management track “throw their hats into the ring” one way or another. This is the decision to engage in the process of career development with the eventual goal of a board position. The following two chapters describe and discuss the formal, or written, process that all directors and potentials must navigate such as board structure, duties and so forth. It is not a technical rendition of the functions of the board, but a list of what the authors call “board basics.” This is followed by the rest of the story: the informal, social dynamics that often dictate success or failure to those who know how, or do not know how, to navigate these waters.

The context, framed in the opening chapters, gives way to the career planning chapters in which Thomson et al. strongly encourage readers to develop specific goals such as industry of preference, targets, timeframes, and so forth. In addition to cultivating qualities of potential board members, methods of self‐presentation and self‐promotion are discussed. Oftentimes, organizational decision makers are not aware of what their followers are doing unless told. This collection of chapters ends with a focus on the self‐awareness process in order for self‐development and goal refinement. In the final section, which this reviewer terms “implementation,” Thomson et al. recommend how the work done in previous chapters can be employed and leveraged for attaining the pinnacle goal: a seat on an executive council or board. This is followed by the authors' look toward the future of not only the state of women in top leadership roles, but also of their cross company mentoring program.

The Roadmap was written for practicing managers for the purpose of aiding women in developing power networks and effective self‐promotion geared toward eventual promotion into top management teams. The book contains a comprehensive table of contents and a thorough index. The citations used in each chapter are referenced at the end of its respective chapter.

The path to the boardroom, for women, has barely been blazed given that only about 15 percent of corporate executives are women. Given this inequity there is a need for a sourcebook to both empower and instruct women on how to leverage talent‐based strengths to achieve career aspirations. This message is expressed in an empowering tone rather than one of despair often seen in other books on the challenges women face in career development. The Roadmap initiates a welcome dialogue about a perennial topic, but does so from a perspective of positive change, regardless of how slight, rather than vituperation against a status quo with no realistic suggestion for the necessary next steps.