Want more female leaders? Hire a woman CEO

If you're struggling to encourage your female staff to take on more senior positions in your company, consider hiring a reputable woman CEO.

According to a new report from Weber Shandwick, women executives are more likely to remain at companies when they work for highly regarded female CEOs.

Polling more than 1,750 senior executives across 19 countries, the report found women professions are significantly less likely than their male peers to want to be chief executive one day (23% vs. 32%, respectively.)

However, when female executives work for a female CEO, their interest climbs to 29%.

“Our research indicates that when women work for female CEOs, they are more motivated to strive to be corporate leaders themselves,” says Gail Heimann, president of Weber Shandwick.

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“These results lead to the undeniable conclusion that if we really want gender equality at the top, we must promote more women into CEO positions and do it now.”

The survey stressed that if companies want to encourage female executives to take on more senior roles, they should keep in mind that the presence of such role models helps significantly.

In Asia Pacific specifically, women were found to be largely undecided if they wished to become CEOs, with 51% saying they would 'maybe' consider a CEO position.

"The leading justification for increasing the number of female CEOs, according to both male (50%) and female (58%) executives in our study, is to create more female role models and mentors," the report stated.

The report also emphasised on the significance of having a good CEO reputation, highlighting it matters to an organisation’s success and is one of its most valuable and competitive assets.

The contributions of CEO reputation to both the company’s reputation and its market value were virtually identical for both male and female CEOs. 54% of male and 64% of female executives said a CEO's reputation impacts their decision to stay in the company.

"We were pleased to learn from our research that when it comes to the reputation of a company and its market value, CEO gender does not matter,” says Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick.

"Where CEO gender does count is in the war for female talent at the top which is no small matter. Having more highly regarded female CEOs at the top helps to retain women at their companies."

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