3 December 2024, by Alison Maitland

Should women leaders resist the offer of a board role that looks precarious and risky for their career? This key question is examined in fascinating new research previewed at an event in London last night by Dr. Rita Goyal.

Her research into the “glass cliff phenomenon”, when businesses in trouble turn specifically to women leaders and potentially set them up to fail, finds several ways to mitigate the risks and make it more worthwhile for women to accept such turnaround roles on boards.

✅ Do robust due diligence, consulting trusted sources with information about the organisation, its key people and how it’s perceived. Be aware that glass cliff roles may be packaged as ‘developmental opportunities’ to hide their precarious nature.

✅ Provide coaching for women both occupying and aspiring to board leadership roles to support them to lead effectively in a complex, risky or toxic environment, as well as to move on well when the time comes.

✅ Acknowledge when a woman Chair has overseen a successful turnaround, and don’t unceremoniously push her out in favour of a man – a common theme found in the research!

✅ Participants also urged the media to be more aware of the glass cliff and less harsh on women handling messy or chaotic situations. “There is almost glee in the media when women fail,” said one participant.

Have you been in this ‘glass cliff’ situation, or witnessed it happening to someone? What was your experience?