'It just suddenly narrows at the top': Advice for women seeking the C-suite

Focus on doing the right thing – not the easy thing

Companies are moving forward on diversity, but there’s still a long way to go at the top.

The same stories are trotted out every year: women doing well; women doing poorly; calls for more diversity; and a never-ending stream of damning pay gap reports.

You could be forgiven for thinking that progress towards gender equality in the workplace has stagnated. It is, admittedly, frustratingly slow - but some are doing better than others.

In the UK legal sector, female lawyers grew to outnumber males for the first time last year, which is great news...if you're a lawyer.

The story is less encouraging, though improving, among support roles.

"I don't know that it's any different for legal tech than it is for tech, in general: it is still a reasonably male-dominated environment," says Su Clarke, head of software development & testing at Magic Circle law firm Linklaters.

But, she adds, "there is a lot of good work that's happening to ensure diversity in tech; both gender, racial and socio-economic diversity."

Su sees "more female presence at my level than there has been before, and more females coming into what have been the more predominant, male-dominated tech functions like software development - I'm seeing more and more female developers coming through."

It just suddenly narrows at the top

That's encouraging - more women entering the space should mean that the seniority gap (the disparity between male and female leaders) will start to close. But, says Bruna Pellicci, Linklaters' CIO, that isn't happening yet.

"To me it's interesting who's coming up, right? So, how many females are there on senior technology leadership teams in law firms, or in general, that are coming through? You get quite a lot of females that might be managers and things and then it just suddenly narrows at the top."

"I see it in legal that as the roles become more senior you have fewer females."

Our own research shows Bruna is the only female CIO among the UK's 10 largest law firms, and one of only three in the top 20.

"Do the right thing, not the easy thing"

This would normally be the point where an article diverts to pipeline discussion around how to bring more women into the tech sector, but as seen above that's (finally) becoming less of an issue in legal firms. Now, we're looking at how to take that final step up to C-suite.

Bruna's advice is to build out your network - "at all levels, but especially at manager level" - both inside the business and externally. Doing this builds support and sponsorship so you have people willing to evangelise for you. It can even lead to informal mentorship to prepare for "the more challenging days coming."

This means taking a wider view. When moving from team to business management, you must consider other people's agendas and their challenges, as well as thinking about how that plays into your goals. Taking the time to get to know your peers and understand their roles is important.

Another, often forgotten, aspect of moving from an operational to a strategic level is focusing on the right things at the right times. Your role changes, and you need to prove you can think outside of it.

"Don't micromanage and get lost in the day-to-day tasks - make time to think ahead on the next week, month, quarter etc."

Finally, Bruna cautions to be aware that actually working at C-level is "hard work," a fact men and women both tend to gloss over.

"I remember when I was younger thinking, ‘I want to be in all those meetings, it's great.' Now I think, ‘Oh, my goodness, I'm in so many meetings, what am I actually achieving?'"

If you're committed to reaching that point, she says good preparation is to "focus on doing the right thing, not the thing that might make you look right, or make you look good - even if it's always not the easiest thing."

Moving to the C-level is hard, and it doesn't slow down once you get there. You need to make tough decisions that can impact people's lives, and you may find yourself making other people uncomfortable because of the pace of change.

But it's also a rewarding position, with opportunities for meaningful impact and autonomy beyond the challenges. Aspiring leaders, regardless of gender, must be aware of the importance of perseverance, ethical leadership and a commitment to positive change.

Linklaters will run an event dedicated to women in tech on 17th April, where Stemettes founder Anne-Marie Imafidon will join Bruna and other senior figures from Linklaters. Register here.