The wider population of bankers still rely predominately on linear thinking, a left brain function. - Tara Kimbrell Cole

An experiment conducted at the University of Arizona’s conference on consciousness in 2002 analogically demonstrates the challenge that executives face in detecting and taking advantage of opportunities. When observers were asked to count the number of times participants threw a ball back and forth between them and a man dressed in a Gorilla costume walked directly through the participants’ line of sight, only 50 percent saw the Gorilla. The others were too busy counting. Could this be what is happening in financial institutions with regard to women bankers? Out-of-focus opportunities can be seen by changing the lenses through which they are viewed.

Do banks really understand the value that senior women bankers in their ranks can bring to policy and strategy decisions? Senior women executives have already been recognised as a resource and opportunity to strengthen organisations’ complex solution capabilities. Coaching and facilitation have demonstrated that sourcing talent from within is more cost efficient.

Research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C., The Seven Revolutions, indicate that the complexity of business challenges will dramatically increase over the next 20 years. As these problems will not be solved by linear thinking alone, there are some thought leaders at the world’s distinguished universities who propose that women executives may take leading positions in the 21st century because they have demonstrated adeptness at complex decision making.

Research indicates that intuition is of significant value in decision making when the decision maker has deep knowledge of the subject, as argued by Robin M. Hogarth in Judgment and Choice, Educating Intuition. This is now recognised as a successful methodology for solving particularly complex problems. Intuition is a right brain function, historically nominated the “feminine” side of the brain. Leading male executives already recognise the value in developing this capacity in themselves. Nevertheless, the wider population of bankers still rely predominately on linear thinking, a left brain function, historically nominated the “male” side of the brain.

Women executives have demonstrated strength in the capacity to ‘digest’ and synthesise information across diverse channels, to engage abstract thought and intuition, all of which are required for complex solution delivery. In contrast, compartmentalising information is a characteristic of the left brain. Senior bankers are now taking courses to develop their right brain capacity.

The aforementioned are now recognised critical competencies for executive leaders; market realities are demanding a more diverse capability from decision makers. Perhaps this capacity can be delivered by more women bankers working with men in the policy and strategy decision making processes. Are senior women bankers ‘low hanging fruit’?

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Tara Kimbrell Cole is an alumna and fellow of the Wharton School, innovator, thought leader and consultant with over 20 years experience in financial services. She can be contacted at tkc@synovations.com.

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