“Identify and address power imbalances in male-dominated or majority-white settings” – #BeyondBias 14/20

Eight months after launching its 20 Recommendations to Managers, we are now unveiling Recommendation 14, a call for managers to dismantle the “silent hierarchies” that persist when one gender or ethnic group dominates decision-making tables.

Download the 20 recommendations here [+]

The release follows last week’s Recommendation 13 on re-balancing high-visibility assignments and builds on earlier guidance to diversify leadership pipelines.

“Too often, subtle power asymmetries decide who speaks, who is heard and who advances,” explains CEC European Managers President Maxime Legrand. “We want managers to make those asymmetries visible—then fix them.”

Why power mapping matters

CEC European Managers’ consultations with EU institutions show that women still report lower autonomy and higher burnout in male-dominated sectors, while algorithmic tools often scrutinise them more closely than men.

At the same time, research summarised in CEC’s earlier Promoting Women in Management report links unchecked power gaps to slower innovation and weaker corporate performance.

Download Promoting Women in Management report here [+]

The four actions at the heart of Recommendation 14

To simplify what you can do in your daily tasks as a manager, here is a simple list with some easy actions you can take:

1. Audit the informal hierarchy
   Map who speaks, interrupts, or receives credit in meetings; cross-check those patterns with gender and ethnicity data.

2. Install “speak-up guardians”
   Rotate a meeting-chair role whose sole job is to notice and correct dominance behaviours—talk-time monopolies, dismissive body language or “office housework” assignments.

3. Redistribute social capital
   Pair senior sponsors with under-represented staff, open high-stakes client pitches or board briefings to diverse presenters and rotate networking-event invitations.

4. Tie equity indicators to performance reviews
   Require team leads to report annually on promotion rates, bonus allocations and project visibility by demographic group, echoing Recommendation 13’s task-assignment tracking.

Download and share all the materials of the #BeyondBias campaign here [+]