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Sarah is a director of a Real Estate Investment Trust whose CEO has expressed his admiration of her intellect and drive for information, but board meetings have become tense recently, and the CEO has grown distant. In Sarah's opinion, the problem is obvious: Sid Yerby, the CFO. Despite Sarah's repeated requests for comprehensive financial statements, he continues to come to board meetings with a mere two pages of analysis that lack any explanation or footnotes. Increasingly, however, hers seems to be the minority view, and, as the only woman on the board, she is starting to feel isolated. The chairman has warned her that everyone is starting to think of her as "pushy." Should she quit the board? Expert commentary comes from Ilene S. Gordon, CEO and chairman, Ingredion, and Sue Decker, former president, Yahoo.

Sarah is a director of a Real Estate Investment Trust whose CEO has expressed his admiration of her intellect and drive for information, but board meetings have become tense recently, and the CEO has grown distant. In Sarah's opinion, the problem is obvious: Sid Yerby, the CFO. Despite Sarah's repeated requests for comprehensive financial statements, he continues to come to board meetings with a mere two pages of analysis that lack any explanation or footnotes. Increasingly, however, hers seems to be the minority view, and, as the only woman on the board, she is starting to feel isolated. The chairman has warned her that everyone is starting to think of her as "pushy." Should she quit the board? Expert commentary comes from Ilene S. Gordon, CEO and chairman, Ingredion, and Sue Decker, former president, Yahoo.

Sarah is a director of a Real Estate Investment Trust whose CEO has expressed his admiration of her intellect and drive for information, but board meetings have become tense recently, and the CEO has grown distant. In Sarah's opinion, the problem is obvious: Sid Yerby, the CFO. Despite Sarah's repeated requests for comprehensive financial statements, he continues to come to board meetings with a mere two pages of analysis that lack any explanation or footnotes. Increasingly, however, hers seems to be the minority view, and, as the only woman on the board, she is starting to feel isolated. The chairman has warned her that everyone is starting to think of her as "pushy." Should she quit the board? Expert commentary comes from Ilene S. Gordon, CEO and chairman, Ingredion, and Sue Decker, former president, Yahoo.

Though boards claim they strive for diversity, the number of female directors remains low; women held only 16.6% of Fortune 500 board seats in 2012. To find out why--and learn about the women appointed to boards and their experiences--Harvard Business School's Groysberg and organizational researcher Bell teamed up with Heidrick & Struggles and WomenCorporateDirectors to conduct annual surveys of board members. In this article they reveal the findings of their 2010 survey of 294 women and 104 men, presenting a profile of the typical female director, what directors thought about the benefits of diversity and the dynamics between men and women on boards, and best practices for recruiting and managing directors. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) Women had to be more qualified than men to be considered for boards. Contrary to popular belief, female directors had more operational and leadership experience than male directors. (2) Boards don't know how to leverage diversity. The women said they were not treated as full members of the group, though the men were largely oblivious to this problem. (3) Great talent is not enough to create a great board. Boards need processes and cultures that encourage inclusiveness as well as diversity.

After rising through the ranks of Corporate America, Beth Stewart has become a corporate director on the board of General Growth Properties. Stewart is struggling with how to address her mounting concerns over the financial health of the growing large publically traded real estate investment trust (REIT) to her fellow board members and company management. The case explores interpersonal communications, influencing one's peers, leadership style, and board dynamics. The case also chronicles Stewart's career progression focusing on different stages including work/life choices she made as a wife and mother of five children.

Reviews Rebecca Halstead's career history, detailing how, through her personal attributes, skills, experiences, challenges, and organizational practices she developed into a successful leader and commander in the U.S. Army. The case profiles her leadership style and philosophy. It examines her career strategies and rise through the ranks; strategies she used to deal with challenges faced as a woman in the military; how she turned around a troubled military unit; and how she dealt with a difficult boss who threatened her command of a 25,000 person combat mission.

Barbara Norris struggles to address the many problems facing her as a recently promoted nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She has inherited a unit with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and highest employee turnover rate among all of the departments at EMU. Furthermore, her new unit was infamous for its culture of confrontation, blaming and favoritism. The staff that has remained is dissatisfied, unmotivated and not functioning as a team to deliver patient care. In fact, GSU's patient satisfaction scores, although average, had been declining steadily over the past few years. Barbara has been asked by EMU'S Director of Nursing to turn the unit around in the midst of an economic crisis and deep cost-cutting measures throughout the hospital. Where and how should she begin?