Image credit: duchesssa CC license

Great interview and insights in an article from HBS Working Knowledge regarding gender differences in Wall Street stars. Even if you’re not a recognized star or that’s not your field I guarantee that the information will be useful.

Why? Because the things that make the difference between women’s success and male failure apply to all.

According to HBS professor Boris Groysberg, “Women tend to do better after a move for two reasons.

One is that they are more invested in external than in in-house relationships. There are four main reasons why star women maintain external focus: uneasy in-house relationships, poor mentorship, neglect by colleagues, and a vulnerable position in the labor market. External focus makes them more “portable” in terms of making a positive move, but can cause problems if they want to progress within their own organization, because you need a solid internal network and good political capital to get things done in organizations. Anyone who focuses mostly on external relationships will not have that.”

Think about it. Forgetting the star function, external focus is death on retention, guaranteeing low loyalty and high turnover.

And as to managers creating women-friendly environments, Groysberg says, “The consequence of that is when these managers leave, the female-friendly environments disappear.”

One way to make everyone a star is to encourage your people to build their external relationships while providing a culture that facilitates the in-house relationships that make people want to stay.

What do you do to give your people both?