KNOW YOUR PLACE
When it comes to board-level female talent, there are “far too many lights under bushels”, says Peninah Thomson, and she is determined to find them. Liz Hall speaks to co-founder of the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme
Over the past nine years, as co-founder of the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme, Peninah Thomson has done much to encourage women “to step forward, take their place at the table and contribute strategically”. Some 94 senior women seeking board-level appointments have been mentored by FTSE 100 chairmen since the programme’s inception, 78 of them achieving “significant career success” (see panel, page 24).
And Thomson isn’t done yet. In 2011, just after the Davies Report, ‘Women on Boards’, was published, the programme’s group of chairmen approached her to head not-for-profit organisation, the Mentoring Foundation.
“The programme was a tried and tested mechanism for moving women forward onto the board, the management was stable, it had a proven record, I’m stable [she laughs], so the group of chairmen asked if I’d be interested in leading the next phase.”
Moving on up
The next phase involved rolling out the programme to the remaining 250 FTSE companies.
“I was stunned, delighted and honoured – honoured is an over-used word, but I really was, and I felt moved to do this.”
Executive coaching firm, Praesta Partners LLP, where Thomson worked full-time as a partner, had been “generous custodians” of the programme since its launch, with lots of support. “It had sat within Praesta very happily for eight years, but it was becoming clear, without being immodest, that it was now hugely successful.”
The programme was transferred to the Foundation on 19 September 2011, and came into being on 1 October. It is funded by subscriptions, with businesses paying for mentees to be mentored by other businesses. Any surplus is ploughed back for mentees’ benefit.
Thomson leaves Praesta on 30 March and she is looking forward to achieving even more.
“Frankly, to be given an opportunity to lead it and take it forward – what a gift! Let’s see what can be done…. I’m really interested in helping these women project their achievements and realise their dreams.
“I’ve been coaching with Praesta [and its precursor, The Change Partnership] for 14 years and I’ve become aware that there is a huge untapped reservoir of talent in organisations lying in their women. It’s not that it’s being ignored, just that it’s not being developed and utilised.”
Subtle cocktail
However, women are held back by a ‘subtle cocktail’ of obstacles.
“It’s a combination of reserve and uncertainty about being in the limelight and not wanting to be the ‘Great I am’ or ‘Mrs Rentaquote’.
“It’s not a case of women blowing their own trumpets. It’s a case of more women being able to own their achievements quietly and confidently, and to speak them.”
With a high-flying career of her own, Thomson’s light is under no bushel – she began her career in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, working direct to the Board of National Delegates of NATO in Rome, Paris, The Hague, Munich and Washington. After doctoral studies at Oxford she joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where during eight years in Government Services and Economics Division, she worked at Cabinet Office level in 14 countries, including the UK. After two years’ secondment to the UK Cabinet Office and a year to the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, she became a director in PwC’s Corporate Transformation Practice, working for four years at board level in FTSE 100 companies.
Foundation work
So what’s Thomson’s strategy for the Foundation? First, she will be seeking to “steady the compass, as one of the chairmen said to me, as transitions are always [about] change”. Second, it will seek to “reach down into the whole of the FTSE”, which is already beginning to happen with the first two FTSE 250 chairmen coming on board. Third, the intention is to provide additional support for mentors and mentees, “now that I’m no longer doing two jobs”. Fourth, although the 12 other programmes in other countries are independent, Thomson is, and will continue to act, as their adviser.
“And as well as doing all of the above, I have every intention of making a significant contribution to increasing the flow-through of UK talent at board and ExCo [executive committee] level.
“The Davies Report was the stimulus…but [it’s] also very important to me, not only to respond to the report but to create a talent pipeline in the UK. It’s not just about getting the numbers right…”
One of the mentors, Douglas J Flint, CBE, group chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, agrees: “If we are to deliver on our ambition to further improve diversity on the board, we need to build the pipeline of senior women executives ready to take on
board-level responsibility – the programme will greatly contribute to this objective.”
Helping hand
Thomson discovered her pleasure in helping others reach their potential while she was working at PwC on projects consulting with the board, devising a partner development programme:
“I realised I thoroughly enjoyed helping individuals find out what they are here to do and helping them achieve their potential. It’s all about talent maximisation.
“My dad was a very gifted teacher of economics, nurturing intellects and my mother was a nurse, nurturing bodies. So I have those two strands of helping people. I am my parents’ child and get a great kick out of seeing people thrive.
“When I get Christmas cards from people telling me I made a difference, it is a source of great personal satisfaction.”
But, given that at the time of the Davies Report only 12.5 per cent of board positions were held by women in FTSE 100 companies, there is much work to be done. However, there is much to celebrate too – at the outset, the programme had just eight mentoring pairings.
Secret of my success
What are secrets of its success so far? “Primarily three things. The calibre of the mentors – I couldn’t ask for more senior people to be participating. The calibre of the mentees they are nominating is extremely high – this is very important because with the best will in the world, we can only support people so much, according to their level of experience and competence and ability. And that there is a robust and reliable process of matching.”
She is very conscious that “mentoring is as bespoke as it is resource-intensive.
“But I believe people who go through the mentoring programme at senior level can and do learn about the process and its transformative power and they can cascade this down to the teams.”
There has been a strong emphasis on learning along the way: “I am the daughter of a teacher so my entire framework of reference is, what can we learn from this? I am also a coach.
“It was a very new construct, there was nothing in the UK or internationally, so right from day one we were saying, ‘What can we learn? I take counsel from the leaders of British commerce and they are very generous in giving me this, so I sometimes feel I have 52 mentors myself.”
Thomson says the programme was ground-breaking and remains unique. For example, it offers mentors only at the highest level: “Therefore, the mentees have access to the experience and input of some of the most senior business figures.”
The fact that mentors and their mentees come from different organisations and industries helps remove some of the constraints of intra-company schemes around confidentiality and perceptions of favouritism, says Thomson.
“It also introduces the mentee to a very important new contact from outside her organisation.”
The nomination processes for mentees varies, although many chairmen work closely with HR directors on selection. Thomson then discusses aspects of the programme with mentees, including expectations and aspirations: “Many women don’t like the word ambition, but are happy to talk about aspirations.”
She offers a personalised matching process, so the failure rate of relationships is very low.
There is no formal training, and although both parties are given minimum requirements, eg, number of meetings per year,
they are “encouraged to shape a unique relationship on terms that suits them”.
Learning varies: “For example, some mentees value specific deliverables and a more traditional coaching-style mentoring relationship, while others learn from the general interaction and advice they receive from their mentors. Mentors have been described by their mentees variously as wise counsellors, role-models and as experienced coaches. In each case they learn from their mentor’s wealth of experience and from building their mentoring relationship.”
As for the mentors, one aim is to help chairmen better understand the challenges women encounter at the highest level.
What success looks like also varies, but Thomson says, “I’m as proud of the woman who has become a trustee of a major UK charity as of the woman now running the whole of North America for one of the big banks.”
Mentees – appointment successes
18 to the executive committee/main board of their company
15 as non-executive directors of FTSE 100/large foreign companies
1 to executive committee/management board of a non-FTSE company
9 as non-executive directors of not-for-profit entities
1 to the board of a non-FTSE company
10 to senior public sector or government roles
21 promoted in their own organisations/have moved for promotion
3 as CEO of a non-FTSE company
1 as trustee of a pension fund