Tracey Wik is a business leader focused on helping women who’ve broken through the glass ceiling survive out on the glass cliff. A growing body of research shows that women who achieve leadership roles often do so in times of crisis or downturn, when the chance of failure is highest. On top of that, they are often given shorter timelines and fewer resources than their male counterparts. In this conversation, Tracey explains the issue and discusses what women can do before and after taking on these leadership roles to put themselves in a better position to be successful.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Timestamps:

(3:20)- Tracey’s background and how she decided to begin doing this work
(5:20) – Was there a moment where the light bulb went off for you in realizing these issues for women were going on?
(8:01) – Defining ’Systemic’ and the idea of Bias
(14:01) – Do you have any examples where you’ve been in the room where decisions were made that negatively affected women?
(18:26) – O’Brien’s experience solo-parenting during Covid
(20:21) – The counter-argument: Women aren’t as interested in these high-intensity jobs or the pool of candidates isn’t wide enough
(22:52) – Thought Experiment: Fortune 500 company hires their first female CEO. What’s your response to that?
(25:02) – Defining the Glass Cliff
(28:05) – Is there something women can do when she’s up for a leadership role to get ahead of the Glass Cliff?
(31:14) – Are men being given the benefit of the doubt when in similar situations?
(34:56) – Tracey’s thoughts on “Women will be other women’s worst critics”
(39:54) – Changing the way we think about “Good Female Leader” vs. “Good Leader”
(45:51) – Do you have any other examples of the Glass Cliff?
(48:39) – The Bumble CEO having to constantly talk about her failures
(52:27) – What are you sick of talking about?
(56:31) – Wrapping Up