how to prevent a glass cliff
the first step to prevent the glass cliff is to simply recognize and name it according to ryan ashby and haslam acknowledging the biases that those in leadership may have then providing education around those topics is a good first step women and minorities should research and learn as much as they can about the financial health of their companies staying up to date on insights including the company s stock information and industry trends can help you calculate your risk level tapping into your network is also incredibly important the researchers suggest asking for guidance and insight when assessing the risk of a new promotion during negotiations it is a good idea to ask how success in the role will be defined here are some questions you might consider asking make sure you include risk in your salary negotiations in fact men are four times more likely to negotiate their salaries than women 9 you should always ask for more than the initial offer and use the risk factor of the position as a negotiating point if you decide to accept the position you will likely find yourself in a male dominated environment at this point you can use your unique skills and perspective to your advantage in fact women score better than men in 11 out of 12 emotional intelligence competencies 10finally it s okay to say no many women who face the glass cliff and are not successful do not get asked to lead another company after being ousted it is recommended to not accept a promotion if your research indicates that failure is highly probable and there are warning signs imminent glass cliff vs glass ceilingthe idea that a glass cliff exists for women and people of color arose from another similar concept the glass ceiling which is what most people commonly hear in the professional sphere the glass ceiling refers to an invisible barrier or hurdle that women often face in their professional careers it is also commonly used to describe what many people of color face in similar situations the concept of a glass ceiling was first used by marilyn loden who spoke about the advancement of women in the workplace or lack thereof at the women s exposition in new york in 1978 11 it was popularized almost a decade later by the wall street journal 12 the term came to prominence again when hillary clinton ran for u s president in the 2008 and 2016 elections 13this barrier is often set up to prevent certain women and others from reaching the highest executive or managerial levels within their respective organizations these positions are dominated by men these hurdles are unspoken and unwritten which means implicit biases are what prevent promotion rather than corporate policies individuals who manage to beat the stereotypes and overcome their obstacles by securing leadership roles are said to have shattered the glass ceiling example of a glass cliffthere are a number of examples where prominent women have faced glass cliffs yahoo appointed marissa mayer as ceo in 2012 after it lost significant market share to google she was the company s third ceo in a period of less than a year mayer resigned in 2017 amidst mounting pressure after she failed to change the company s trajectory she was only in the position for about five years critics attributed her performance to her effort rather than to the environment of an underperforming company thomas mcinerny a white male was tapped to replace mayer 14jcpenney hired its first woman ceo in 2018 jill soltau was appointed following a series of consecutive losses store closures and difficulties adapting to the changing needs of its customers in the digital era while only a handful of women have ever served as chief executives of fortune 500 companies she was qualified for the position prior to assuming the role soltau was the president and ceo of joann stores and was a 30 year veteran of the industry soltau was coming into a challenging industry jcpenney had enormous debt leading experts to believe the company wouldn t be able to avoid bankruptcy the covid 19 pandemic proved to be disastrous the company filed for bankruptcy in may 2020 which was sooner than expected in december 2020 soltau was asked to leave her position as ceo 157