In 2010, the CEO proclaimed an earnings target for 2015 based on nothing at all. There was no plan or reasonable expectation, just a flashy number. Investors ate it up and stock went up. No shortage of white men eager to be at the helm of a company that seemed to be on top of the world.
He promptly left the company and handed it over to a woman. As one could predict, a hollow wish about earnings without an actual plan failed to actually deliver. To a lot of folks who understood the nuance, they called it from the moment he said it.
However, the news coverage was basically that she failed to execute on his “plan”.
Now she wasn’t amazing leadership or anything, but neither was he. However he got to be celebrated as a strong leader mostly on the back of hollow promises and she got to be blamed for the fact it was hollow.
I suppose I can’t prove that it was because she was a woman that she got to be the fall person, but I am at least sure they could have found a willing white dude to be the fall guy at least.
An example I can think of is IBM.
In 2010, the CEO proclaimed an earnings target for 2015 based on nothing at all. There was no plan or reasonable expectation, just a flashy number. Investors ate it up and stock went up. No shortage of white men eager to be at the helm of a company that seemed to be on top of the world.
He promptly left the company and handed it over to a woman. As one could predict, a hollow wish about earnings without an actual plan failed to actually deliver. To a lot of folks who understood the nuance, they called it from the moment he said it.
However, the news coverage was basically that she failed to execute on his “plan”.
Now she wasn’t amazing leadership or anything, but neither was he. However he got to be celebrated as a strong leader mostly on the back of hollow promises and she got to be blamed for the fact it was hollow.
I suppose I can’t prove that it was because she was a woman that she got to be the fall person, but I am at least sure they could have found a willing white dude to be the fall guy at least.