We sometimes hear and read about smashing the corporate glass ceiling. The corporate glass ceiling is an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a corporation. It is an invisible but real barrier through which the next stage or level of advancement can be seen, but cannot be reached. 

Before we smash this barrier we need to look at the base. The base is where most people are. This constituency is both within corporations, society and oneself.

Smashing the corporate glass ceiling would be dangerous, difficult and damaging.

A gentler journey would be to look first at our own base, discover and remove our own limitations. This allows us to tend to the needs of our base constituency, those on whom our success depends. Smashing the glass ceiling and removing barriers at the top is not relevant to most people.

It is important we tend to the needs of the people at the base and it is thinking about them that this article is about.

Introduction

Glass ceilings are not just at the top of corporations.

Breaking the glass ceiling therefore will not mean breakthrough for those at the base.

Before long the already bulging corporate graveyard, fat with the corpses of previous unmanaged change projects, will have a new internment. Few of us work close to the corporate glass ceiling. More work further down the corporation, most, closer to the base.

Rather than focusing on smashing the glass ceiling, it would be better management of change if we began by raising the conditions of those at the base.

We begin this corporate journey by looking at our own personal base identifying and removing our own limitations and prejudices, the ones we cannot currently see. We cannot see because we have not looked.

This is not a task and a duty for everyone, it is an opportunity for everyone.

To do this, we will need to have the courage to look at and remove our limiting structures. This removal is about becoming aware, self-aware. It is the willingness to be prepared to look at self and one’s attitudes, prejudices, beliefs and behaviours.

It is the willingness to look at our own glass ceiling and the limits we place on ourselves in what we allow and are preventing ourselves from doin, how we interact with those we meet and more especially, those we avoid. Becoming self-aware is the cornerstone of leadership and change.

Before long the already bulging corporate graveyard, fat with the corpses of previous unmanaged change projects, will have a new internment.

Corporate structures are built with fear and are covered with nothing more than a thick lack of awareness; a lack of awareness of self and the potential of others. We cannot see the potential of others until we have knowledge of self and our derailing behaviours, judgement, jealousy and in some cases the need for power.

These derailing behaviours build the re-enforced corporate ceilings and structures: structures and barriers that prevent others from flourishing.

Definition

The corporate glass ceiling is an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a corporation. It is an invisible but real barrier through which the next stage or level of advancement can be seen, but cannot be reached.

This barrier is due to a lack of leadership. Leadership based upon self-awareness, the self-awareness that helps to identify personal traits and behaviours. This awareness builds the confidence that allows creativity and innovation to take place. This awareness and potential of self is necessary before one can see the potential in others.

We need to have the courage to look at and remove our limiting structures.

The base is not a physical place but one where there is no acknowledgement. No acknowledgement for effort, talent, creativity or recognition for the dignity of the person. It is where people work without the right level of training, clear instructions, feedback, poor physical working conditions and/or low pay. It is the place where most people work.

Leadership is when people are self-aware; they know who they are, what they believe in and what they want to achieve. Grounded by their principles they respond to life’s challenges with a consistent and unswerving outlook.

Like the resourceful chef, they know what they have in the larder and can transform those resources into a banquet. The effective leader knows their personal resources – strengths and weaknesses.

This gives them a foundation, an internal compass that directs and allows them to respond to the changing external environment and convert the opportunities presented. Once this internal foundation has been laid leadership behaviour grows.

It is this type of leadership, leadership where the untethered, recognise the dignity of other people and encourage them to become who they are. Before leaders can recognise others they need to recognise themselves - positives and negatives.

Concentrating only on the advancement of those at the top will increase the gap between those at the top and those at the base.

Recognising and encouraging others because of who they are will allow us to gently remove glass ceilings throughout corporations. Those at the base will feel recognised.

This recognition will give people the encouragement to take risks and communicate more effectively with others. Recognition will remove barriers to advancement and change will be managed. 

Conclusion

If we concentrate only on the advancement of those at the top it does not guarantee improving both the emotional and physical conditions of others throughout the corporation, the constituency on whom leaders depend on and need to flourish.

Concentrating only on the advancement of those at the top will increase the gap, the distance between those at the top and those at the base.

Widening the gap will increase division and disharmony. Disharmony and division make poor foundations for corporations and for growth. We need to and can raise the base where our constituency of support lies.

To remove the corporate glass ceiling we must recognise first the boundaries we have placed on ourselves. We do need to look up to be inspired but we also need to look around and in to discover what is there and make the necessary changes to oneself.

Taking and making small personal steps and changes will help to gently remove the barriers that create glass ceilings and barriers. Glass is useful but can be dangerous and must be treated with care and can only be removed by taking and making small steps and changes.

James Flanagan specialises in delivering change through positive leadership and has worked as a trainer and a management development consultant in a broad range of companies including IBM, Lilly, Harley Davidson, BUPA, UNICEF, Owens Illinois and Unilever.