Women in Leadership: Strategies from FTSE 350 organisations leading the way
With Edward Haigh, Head of Research, Encompass Equality
Episode #59: Women in Leadership: Strategies from FTSE 350 organisations leading the way with Edward Haigh
Series 8, Episode 7, Wednesday 6 August 2025
In this episode, Joy Burnford interviews Edward Haigh. Ed is Head of Research at Encompass Equality and is an accomplished and purpose driven business leader with 25 years of international experience across a wide range of industries, including consumer electronics, music, social media and professional services. Ed joins Joy today to share insights and key findings from Encompass Equality’s latest research ‘Women in Leadership: Strategies from FTSE 350 organisations leading the way’.
Key takeaways
The research report sheds light on what separates the FTSE 350 organisations leading the charge on gender parity from everyone else. It finds that progress depends much less on what organisations do, and much more on why they do it, who does it, how and when.
Leading organisations are laying the cultural foundations first. They are asking:
Do we know and agree why we’re doing this? Can we explain the link between this work and our purpose and strategy?
Is change being led by people with power and personal commitment? Are line managers capable of and empowered to make change actually happen?
Are we being inclusive in our approach to inclusivity? Are we tailoring our work to local cultural environments?
Are we doing things in the right order, at the right time and at the right pace?
This approach also appears to have created an unexpected degree of resilience to the political pushback against diversity and inclusion initiatives. Leading organisations say it’s not going to change their commitment to inclusion as it’s something that is absolutely foundational to the success of their organisation.
Leadership is key, and is where progress is being made. Leading organisations tend to have genuine, committed leadership in place, and build the cultural foundations. When that happens, this work benefits everybody. A question Ed raises, and which he explores more in his blog of the same title is ‘Could you achieve your gender parity objectives without mentioning gender in the course of doing so?’.
Insights from Ed
“The key finding of the research is that those organisations that are leading are leading not so much because of what they're doing, and much more because of why they're doing it, who's doing it, how they're doing it, and when they're doing it.”
“These organisations are laying the cultural foundations first, and then if they are launching initiatives on top of that, those initiatives have the best possible chance of success. Whereas the reverse is happening elsewhere. Initiatives are being launched and not going anywhere.”
“Leadership does seem to be absolutely central to this and where progress is being made. You normally find a leader that's really, genuinely, authentically, wholesomely, wholeheartedly committed to to this work.”
“It’s really about leaders being willing to turn the mirror around on themselves. I think I would like to see fewer situations in which a leader is brought the gender challenge, if you like, and says to well intentioned people ‘That sounds great, I'm fully behind it, off you go and do that.’ And actually more situations in which a leader realises this starts with me. Let me first turn the mirror around on myself. Let me examine how I'm contributing or not contributing to this. Let me understand my behaviours, the influence I have on the culture of this organisation. Let me start there, and then in the leadership team around me, let me really get into those cultural foundations. Because once you do that, this stuff just becomes an awful lot easier. And if you don't do it, it's really, really hard.”
Keywords
Gender parity, leadership, inclusive culture, FTSE 350 research, diversity and inclusion, male allyship, organisational culture, women in leadership, strategic initiatives, cultural foundations, leadership accountability, middle management, flexible working, trust, talent development.
Resources
Download the summary research report here.
The full 50-page research report which contains deep analysis and in-depth case studies from leading organisations is only available to Encompass Equality member organisations. Access Membership gives you full access to our annual research report and our back catalogue of research, along with an unrivalled suite of resources, expertise, support and community, helping you to make meaningful and lasting impact in your organisation. To find out more, please get in touch.
With thanks to our sponsors, AlixPartners, Balance the Board, Grant Thornton UK, Leathwaite and PGIM, and also to FTSE Women Leaders Review and the Chartered Management Institute for their support.
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