Where We Really Are
Converstation: Where We Really Are
Speaker: Joanna Barsh, Director Emerita, McKinsey & Company and best-selling author, "How Remarkable Women Lead," "Centered Leadership," and "Grow Wherever You Work."
Joanna Barsh urges the audience at MAKERS Conference 2024 to take action and address the ongoing inequalities faced by women, challenging them to move beyond mere acknowledgment to tangible steps for change. Emphasizing the need for a shift in mindset, setting meaningful goals, and taking deliberate action, she highlights progress in women's representation at the executive level while acknowledging persistent disparities, particularly for women of color. Barsh delves into the harsh realities of the workplace for women of color, illustrating the steep challenges they face in career advancement. She underscores the importance of allies, mentors, and role models in navigating these obstacles and advocates for bringing energy and engagement to work to effect positive change. Both speakers call for collective action and a commitment to fostering inclusivity and equity in the workplace, urging attendees to embrace their agency and make a difference.
Video Transcript
[THEME MUSIC]
JOANNA BARSH: Her new name-- Minister [? Jenae ?] told us to make something. Well, you know what we're going to make? Trouble, because you guys are sleeping. Those of you who went on the run this morning-- who went on the run?
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
Yes. Well, you guys are all napping right now. I need you. I need you to tell the story. This is the story. This is it.
You're waiting for me to take inventory of where we really are? My question for you is, where are we really? I don't fucking know.
[LAUGHTER]
Do you see women's reproductive rights over here? Yeah. We have to fucking change that, as Judy said in those very words, last night. Do you see women's pay equity maybe over here? Good for the US Soccer team, but what about all of us?
We all would like to get-- would you please help us, Bev and Chris? Do I have to wear the t-shirt? I will. Do you see white women getting to the top? Yes, we are.
But where is everybody else? Are they over here? Where are you? Are you over here?
If you're over here, I see a little halo around you. And you should be helping the rest of us. I wake up today, I was like over here. What am I going to do? How are we going to fix this? It is up to you.
And so let's look at a few facts. I come from McKinsey. Some of you may know what that is. I have to show you a chart-- a fucking chart or two.
And this one is-- thank you to LeanIn. Anybody from LeanIn in the group here? Maybe, maybe not. You can say who you are-- or McKinsey.
I'm from McKinsey. And what do we have? We have real growth. Look at this-- 2015. That was the year that LeanIn and McKinsey started this whole thing.
Maybe your company is in the pipeline. If your company is not in the pipeline, well, write that down because that's something you can do. Get them to give the data.
Look at the difference-- three. I can do math in my head-- three, four. Oh my god-- six, four, and 11-point improvement. Scientists, you know it takes time to make progress. And these are pretty great numbers.
What is that, by the way? That's called a talent pipeline. And that means women are moving up to the c-suite.
And we care about that. In fact, the very tippy top is where the most progress has been made. This is the Fortune 500 CEOs.
Of course, how many are there? 500. How many women are there? 53. And we're breaking the 10% barrier.
And you say, I'm excited. And I say, that's because we started from nothing. Nothing on nothing is a very large infinite number.
OK, so many more women reach the top. And guess what? Many more women are on boards. There are 5,400 board seats, more or less, in the Fortune 500.
And 40% of the new people were women, but it wasn't really the new people. It was the new seats. So if you are sitting on a public board seat or two or three or four, give it up for one other woman so we can get the numbers of women up.
[APPLAUSE]
We held more than a third of the seats. And you've done the math in your head. And you know that if we only put 40% women into new seats, we're never going to get to 50%. So we have to improve on that too, now that I think about it.
OK, so does this all just happen? We're all sitting here waiting for more progress to happen? No, it actually happens because of the women and the men in this room who have taken tons of initiatives.
And who's here from HR or DEI or IED or just I? Yes, give them an applause. They have worked their tails off for us.
[APPLAUSE]
Look at all this shit they've been doing. Have they been sitting around? No, they've been doing things like parent-friendly benefits. If anybody has a kid, you might know what that is. My kids are grown.
But policies for career opportunities, I know what that is. They've done much more than this. I ran out of time.
So thank you, but we have to do more. Now, if you think that there hasn't been any progress made, you are not a white man.
[LAUGHTER]
White men in the audience, who hopefully have stopped looking at their emails for one moment, realize that there are fewer of them at the top, only 58% now and 56% in the c-suite. They have given it up to the rest of us. And you know what? That's more competitive.
That's harder. There are more people to push and succeed against and compete and win against to get to the top. If you're a white man, thank you. Thank you for allowing that competition to happen. I'm not sure it was your permission that we needed, but thank you anyway.
OK, it is not all rainbows and unicorns. Actually, it kind of sucks. And so if you're a glass half empty, I get it. I get it.
If you're a man of color, though, let's just look at this data and imagine the shape that this data is making. So 18% of entry-level professionals are men of color. And as you look at their pipeline what do you see? 18%, 18%, 16%, 14%, 15%, 15%-- you kind of see a pipe, right? Almost a pipe.
Now let's look at women of color. Vanna White-- 18%. Now what do you see? It's shrinking. It's getting so small that the people in the back of the room cannot-- it's an eye chart. What number?
[LAUGHTER]
7%. And what's in the c-suite? 6%. That's outrageous. That's not a pipe.
What is that? It's a really sharp funnel. It's harder for women of color. And in fact, if you are a Black woman, it's incredibly hard to even get to that first level, which is called manager. It's actually junior manager or early manager, whatever you want to call it.
54% compared to the men. We index to men, so this does not mean that 100% of the men get to manager. Whatever percent gets to it, half of them for the Black women.
And if you are Latina, it's actually not that much better-- 3/4. And if you're Asian, it's almost, but not really, equitable. And if you're a white woman, it's still not really equitable, unless you think that 9% of the white women just decided to go shopping that day that they handed out the promotions-- not happening. So promotion rates constrain everybody, and most of all Black women, from the very, very start of the pipeline.
It's frustrating. It sucks, right? It's stressful. Think about it. Think about going to a meeting and not speaking up because you don't want to seem difficult.
Think about imagining what you can say. You're seething inside. You know the right answer. But how do you say it to avoid being unlikable?
Think about changing who you are, what you wear, how you behave, how your hands work-- everything, how you sit, how you walk in order to blend in. I'm blending in, right? It's all black here. So I'm showing you how to blend in.
And think about being perfect. That is a fucking impossibility. And yet, women come to work every day and try to be perfect to avoid being judged, because you are judged and judging 100% of the time in the office.
And look at the difference I indexed all men. Those are the real numbers for all men who responded to the statements. And then I indexed all women and Black women to the men. And so you can see, it is 100%, 200%, 300%, 400% more difficult.
That's harsh. That's a real challenge. It can feel overwhelming. And no, I am not going to say that speech and embarrass myself in front of hundreds of people.
But I just feel overwhelmed thinking about this. And if you're tired and if you're overwhelmed, and if like me, you shed an angry tear when you read this and when you watch the movie for the fifth time, you still shed that tear, that is because it isn't fair. It is overwhelming. So what can we do?
We have one thing we can do. And it was said last night over and over again by these amazing honorees. We can take action. I'm going to show you in the last few minutes a few ways that you can get from here, which is it sucks, to here, which is I have agency, I have some control. You want to know?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JOANNA BARSH: Yeah? Are you awake yet, or should I just say the word "sex," just to get everybody up and at em? OK, shift one-- shift your mindset. Shift your mindset.
What this is? Allison referred to it last night. We can say, the future is fucked. I am fucked.
I personally cannot get pregnant, although I would like to. I am almost 70. However, in many states, you can't get pregnant. That's fucked.
OK, we can shift to, I have agency, I have some control, I can act. I can get better, as [? Jenae ?] asked us to. I can learn, I can grow. I'm not there yet. We're going to work on this this afternoon, so I'm not going to spend too much time there.
But number two, you've got to have a goal. What are you working towards? What matters to you?
I don't know if you felt the way I did. I left last night totally like, [INAUDIBLE]. And that's, like, not normal for me. I know you think-- yeah, answer the phone it's OK.
So what goal is your goal? What goal matters to you? For me, it's advancing women at work.
It's a pretty small, narrow goal. And it's really hard. And I've spent the last 20 years working on it. And I hope I live another 20 because I'm going to keep working on it.
What do you really want? What is motivating you to do that? I don't care what it is.
No judgment, unless you're saying, I want to be tall. And if you're tall to begin with, that's cool because you've already achieved the goal. But if it's me, it's not happening.
So what motivates you? What really motivates you? What makes you so excited and so stressed and so ready to get out of bed in the morning?
And I'm not talking about Lululemon's great run. I'm talking about you. If you find that, it's usually five levels down.
You've got something. You've got a real goal. And you've got a reason to stick to it.
And then you think about your future self. And you see yourself in the future achieving this goal. And when you get into the future, you do not jump. You just walk backwards till you figure the steps out that will get you there.
What are the steps? Not that that plan is going to be the right plan tomorrow, but you do need to have a plan with action and milestones. You need to just stop thinking about it and start doing it. And it takes learning and it takes some failure.
And then guess what you get to do? Practice, practice-- and this word deliberately is there on purpose. It's a fancy schmancy psychology word that just means be conscious about it.
What do you want to learn? Why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you working so hard?
You're working so hard to grow, to achieve, to help other people. Whatever it is, know the why, and then be conscious and be in the moment. And track it, not tracking it because you're going to judge yourself and give yourself an A. We don't give a fuck what grade you get.
We know you're going to fail, as it was in that movie "Walk Hard." You know you're going to fail. That's OK because you're going to learn.
Failing is OK if you learn. If you don't learn, it just sucks. I know it because I've failed quite a lot in my life.
And you've got to put the hours in. And I know you work hard. But the most important thing-- and [? Jenae, ?] you said it this morning, is to be open to be coached. And look at all these coaches in this room. Look around in the room and see these incredible women and smile at them because they are your coaches.
I can see you looking at me. I can't coach all of you. You have to look at each other and realize they're there for you. Everyone is here for you and for themselves.
OK, there is another step. And it's about people. It's about finding them. I love this picture because, what is she doing? She's looking for them in her phone.
Well, they're all in there, probably. She has an incredible Rolodex. She works for William Morris. I don't know. But all these people are around her-- coaches and allies and mentors and sponsors and bosses and friends and colleagues, oh my.
And what do you get from all those people besides dirty looks? Forget that. Don't worry about it. You get hugs. When I see you, I hope that you will allow me to hug you because I love to be in roomfuls of women who are achieving things.
You get questions. Questions are good. They're not there to make you small. They're there to make you think. You get talent agency agents who connect you who think of platforms for you, who give you ideas. You get visionaries.
Wow, you get visions if you ask the right people. You get connections. People tell you about other people, and then they make a connection, and that's great.
You get sages who are just very smart people. And they usually are like this and they go, yes, tell me more. And you think, God, that person is so smart. And then you get godfathers, and godfathers make it happen for you in return for the small price of loyalty or your life.
And by the way, heroes give you the same thing. But all they want is a life full of hugs from you. And you can do that.
So finally, you can't stop there. You have one more thing to do in this simple plan, which is be a role model for others-- for the women, the men, and everyone not in this room who you want to help. And this is what it means, in my mind, to be a role model who is an influencer. It's a respected person because you've made your value clear. It's a connected person.
And that doesn't mean-- look, I'm an introvert. I can't meet with hundreds of people without sort of feeling drained. Meet five people. Make it your job to meet one new person today. I know you're sitting with people you already know, so meet somebody you don't yet know.
And then be engaged, which means being here, being in the room, being present. And be engaging, which means watch, exactly, with a few smiles or frowns, whatever you feel. And then finally, make sure there are a few people right there, right behind you, who are growing because of you. That is the coolest thing in the world, by the way.
And then finally, bring some goddamn energy to work. You have it at home you had it on the run. Bring it to work. Even if you have to dance and sing, that's a wonderful thing.
Energy is contagious, and we're going to learn about that as well this afternoon. Fear is contagious. Love is contagious. And I don't even mean romantic love. I mean the kind of love we have for each other.
So I need this probably more than you. Hands unfolded, feet uncrossed, everybody sit up, feel your back. And that too.
Yeah, there's no learning here. You already know how to do this. Head on spine. Take a deep, deep breath in.
[INHALES]
Oh.
And an even deeper breath out. Let's just do that one more time.
[INHALES]
Deep breath in, and even deeper breath out. And know that you have a choice. You're exercising that choice by being here, whether you're a female or a male, whether you're somebody who is short or tall, in the entertainment industry or a banker. It really doesn't matter. You are amazing. You are remarkable because of what you do for yourself and for others.
Our future is actually here because we're going to live it in the present. And the more we live in the present, the more we can get done. So put on your black hoodie that says "RE," and do it, damn it. That's it for me. Thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
[THEME MUSIC]
