IN THE MIDST of so much
uncertainty, corporate
boards have become more
risk averse about under-
taking a CEO search. And those that
have gone ahead have been just as
risk averse in their selection. A study
by executive search firm Heidrick &
Struggles found that during the early
months of the pandemic, companies
prioritized candidates with previous
CEO experience. Because few women
already have those three critical
letters on their résumés, the rate of
female executives selected declined.
Some headhunters believe that the
next six months will turn all these
trends on their head—that the pent-
up demand for change at the top will
be a boon for women. There are two
big factors driving this prediction,
says Jana Rich, founder and CEO
of executive search firm Rich Talent
Group. The first is that the pandemic
has put more value on qualities that,
rightly or wrongly, tend to be attrib-
uted to women, such as empathy and
authenticity. “EQ—this emotional
quotient—has been more important
in the last 18 months than certainly
any time I’ve ever seen in my career,”
says Best Buy CEO Corie Barry.
The second is momentum.
More than 60% of respondents in
the Fortune survey said their senior
management team had become
more diverse in the past year. “We
are at a point where there’s so much
visibility about the lack of diver-
sity in the C-suite that going back
is almost impossible,” says Burns,
whose board work includes Teneo,
Exxon Mobil, and Uber. But she’s
concerned that the enormous pres-
sure senior leaders are under to
make their companies less homo-
geneous will lead them to elevate
white women, the group most
familiar to those already in power,
and declare success when people of
color have made little progress. “It’s
a risky time from that perspective,”
she says.
THERE IS ONE LOOMING,
existential question that
could make all this debate
moot: Do women still
want what corporate America is sell-
ing? “If everything is geared around
white male norms, then we shouldn’t
be surprised that the product
doesn’t fit,” says Jane Stevenson, vice
chair of board and CEO services at
Korn Ferry.
Rich could, off the top of her head,
name two women from the tech
industry whose next jobs easily could
have been as CEOs of high-growth
companies. Instead, both walked
away. “There’s definitely a huge re-
evaluation happening,” she says. “The
question is, do they want these jobs?
They look at it and say, ‘You know
what, I’ve been awfully close to that
fire, and I don’t want it.’ ”
Nooyi, who’s been in the hot seat,
gets it. She says moving into your
next job was the only thing her gen-
eration knew. “A lot of women areasking, ‘Is this really worth it?’ It’s
just exhausting.”
Still, that might not be as dire as
it sounds. Women who opt out of
traditional ladder climbing will end
up building their own pathways,
says Nooyi. She believes this cohort
will create their own companies
and measures of success that are
different from those prescribed
by traditional corporate America,
otherwise known as white men.
“They made the rules, they live by
the rules,” Nooyi says. “We need a
critical mass of women to make our
own rules.”
That’s a future some—including
those who made it to the top the
old way—are more than ready to
see. “I want them to actually have
the chance to articulate out loud, ‘I
don’t want to do this. Thank you for
offering,’ ” says Burns. “That’s true
equity, that’s true equality—when you
get the chance to turn the goddamn
thing down.”Land O’Lakes’ Beth Ford didn’t see her own CEO potential until her forties.JESSICA CHOU