Why business doesn't have to be so macho

A new leader is emerging, who operates within a web of relationships, rather than a simple hierarchy. Ms Webb is one of the high-profile speakers who have appeared in recent years at the Women’s Business Forum, which has attracted a host of advocates for gender equality.

The forum was established by Yorkshire businesswoman Heather Jackson, who is determined to ensure that more women gain a place at the top table.

Her supporters describe Ms Jackson as a “force of nature” who is using her tenacious networking skills to make a difference.

Ms Jackson is proud to echo the beliefs of Ms Webb, who argues that many women have the attributes and natural strengths that make great leaders.

However, too many corporate sectors still seem to have an invisible “men only” sign hanging over the door. For example, just one in 20, or 5.7 per cent, of professional engineers are female, and research from the WISE organisation, which campaigns to promote women in science, technology and maths – or STEM – roles found that just 13 per cent of people working in occupations classed as STEM were women.

Over the last seven years, Ms Jackson has developed An Inspirational Journey, which is based in Leeds and works to address the imbalance of talent that exists at the top of corporate Britain. The initiative is aimed at ensuring that the best people get to the top regardless of gender, sector or region.

But what inspired her to develop this initiative? Ms Jackson told me: “In 2009, the Yorkshire report from BDO [the professional services firm] revealed that Yorkshire had fewer women on its boards than any other region.

“As Yorkshire, along with the rest of the UK, was just going into the recession I thought that Yorkshire was going to need to perform better and be more creative, to help get itself out [of the recession] more quickly.”

A report from McKinsey, the global management consultancy, also highlighted the fact that boards performed better with women on them.

So the indefatigable Ms Jackson decided to create the Two Per Cent Club, a national network of influential women with regional reach.

The club aims to lead the debate about the under-representation of women at the top of corporate UK. It was set up to unite the current top two per cent of executive and non-executive women from a range of sectors.

Ms Jackson recalled: “Starting in Yorkshire, it expanded to the North West, Birmingham, Scotland and London to encourage more senior women to recognise the issue and actively try to change the status quo.

“I knew there were great women 
out there and I wanted them to pledge to mentor and support other women with the ethos ‘lift as you climb’. Women should seek out opportunities for other women.

“Too many women wait to be asked, instead of putting themselves forward. We have an economic and business problem that the UK needs to solve if we are to compete on a global playing field.”

Ms Jackson decided the problem was not primarily at the top but with the pipeline of female talent, in other words, the lack of women in middle management.

“It was leaking,” she said. “How could we get more women to the top if we weren’t developing the talent pool at middle and senior management? This pipeline could not be fixed overnight.

“We need more skilled and talented women in all sectors and throughout all ranks of management through to the executive. We need more women to be visible and put their hands up.

“It’s not as much about leaning in, but standing up, right now in the UK.”

She added: “I have created talent management programmes to support the development of women in the pipeline.

“I want to help women realise that they are not isolated, there are plenty of like-minded and aspiring women from all sectors, and while companies endeavour to make the cultural changes to support women, women also have to recognise the things they need to do for themselves to ensure they realise their potential.

“More than 2,000 women from 70 global companies have been supported by our programmes, reaching out to a further 5,000 in the pipeline through mentoring. I want women to have more confidence and self-belief and recognise their own skills and capabilities.”

Ms Jackson is keen for women to take ownership of their career development – it shouldn’t be left to their line manager to dictate their progression.

“Networking and contacts are no longer a ‘nice to have’,” she said. “They are an essential part of your career development and internal networking and visibility cannot be underestimated.

“Networking is all about nurturing relationships. You have got to go and build relationships – politeness opens many doors. It’s about collaboration and taking the fear factor away from networking.”

Ms Jackson has also developed an annual global platform for the issues she cares about.

She said: “Starting in Yorkshire as the Women’s Business forum, five years on, it has been transformed into the world’s first gender-balanced leadership conference – the Balanced Business Forum.”

According to Ms Jackson, the forum aims to radically change talent-management policies.

She added: “This issue doesn’t just belong to the HR director; it belongs to every leader in the line, both male and female.

“It’s not about replacing great men with average women, but ensuring that the best talent can grow regardless of gender and collaboratively we need to ensure we deliver this.”

The forum has attracted 500 male and female leaders from more than 150 organisations and is poised to keep growing.

Ms Jackson added: “I want more women to think less about sacrifice and more about choice.

“I also want the same for young men too, having a teenage daughter and a son.”