Boeing Shakeup Threatens ‘Glass Cliff’ Fate for Stephanie Pope

The Boeing Co.‘s appointment of executive Stephanie Pope to salvage the aircraft maker’s most embattled division had a familiar air to it.

Boeing’s move tees up a “glass cliff” scenario, in which a woman is promoted to a high-profile corporate leadership role at a time of crisis to fix an impossible situation, and ends up shouldering blame.

“We call them to the seat, and then they can’t show up in ways that are unique to them—we expect them to lead like all the people that have come before them,” Deepa Purushothaman, a corporate culture consultant and Harvard Business School fellow, said. “That’s the challenge: We need women to take the seat but be their full selves when they get there.”

Pope faces the task of shoring up FAA and airline customer confidence in Boeing’s manufacturing quality after an embarrassing gaffe—missing bolts—led to a near-catastrophic structural failure of a new 737 Max in January. She will also help oversee Boeing’s first full contract talks in 16 years with its largest union, which has a history of labor activism and strikes.

Her tenure leading the unit could play out as it has for some other women executives in similar situations—especially if the board of directors doesn’t allow her the room to rehabilitate the division in her own way, Purushothaman said.

Pope follows a line of other women who have taken corporate reins during crises. Marissa Mayer, for example was named CEO of Yahoo from 2012 to 2017 through a period that ended in a $4.5 billion sale to Verizon and her resignation.

Close scrutiny by shareholders, boards of directors, employees and customers can make it hard for such women to implement a new vision or lead in a unique way, said Michelle Ryan, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.

“The metaphor of the glass cliff extends the metaphor of the glass ceiling, capturing the seniority of the position—but also the precarity of leading through crisis.” Ryan, who coined the phrase in 2005, said in an email.

Failure in such a situation isn’t inevitable, Ryan said, “but success certainly is more difficult when things are in crisis mode from the start.”

Boeing didn’t respond to a request for comment or to make Pope available for an interview. Outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun said in his departure announcement that Pope “knows our company inside and out and has a proven track record of superb leadership.”

Unicorn Leaders

Company observers say the role calls for a leader with a background in engineering, with first-hand knowledge of airplane assembly, to fix operational problems.

But that person—one with an operational, finance, logistics and engineering background—just doesn’t exist, Nicolas Owens, an equity analyst for Morningstar said. And that perfect person with the perfect resume isn’t necessary, he added. Pope holds a reputation for humility and good listening skills, which may prove more valuable at a division where bad news doesn’t flow from the factory floor to the executive offices. And she’s moving to Seattle to lead the job.

“Barring this unicorn who has an engineering degree and knows commercial business and all of that—above all, I think Boeing needs to understand the importance of logistics and process, to the people who are building the plane,” Owens said. “That doesn’t necessarily need an engineering degree, it’s listening to the right people.”

Pope has never run a complex aircraft manufacturing program, unlike a trio of Boeing executives who’d been considered the most likely successors to former unit head Stan Deal before Monday’s bombshell announcement.

Pope gained some valuable operations leadership skills as head of Boeing Global Services, the smallest of the three business divisions. But she held the post for less than two years before being elevated to the COO role, a surprise move that positioned Pope as Calhoun’s heir apparent.

Boeing needs an engineer or someone with the technical know-how to fix mechanical problems to lead the commercial airplanes division, Margarethe Wiersema, a business management professor at UC Irvine, said.

The lack of the right background could make it harder for Pope to succeed, Wiersema said.

“You’re more likely to fail than you are to succeed, but you’re much more likely to fail, and you don’t even have the capability to do the job,” Wiersema said.

‘Less Space’

Glass cliffs are often labeled once they’ve already happened. Women in tech or startup industries seem to receive criticism that edge on personal attacks. When Marissa Mayer led Yahoo, she faced publicity around her personality, pregnancy and management style.

And Miyoko Schinner, founder and CEO of vegan-cheese startup Miyoko’s Creamery, was pushed out in a tumultuous exit.

To avoid the same pitfalls, Boeing needs to let Pope take risks and make big bets, Purushothaman said, even though that may be hard for the company as endures scrutiny from a recent door-plug failure that blew a jet’s door off the plane midflight earlier this year.

And the scrutiny should stop there, she added, because the intense focus on Pope plays into the glass cliff narrative too.

“There’s this entire other layer of pressure that we put on high-profile women leaders that has nothing to do with the job, that has nothing to do if there was a man in the role,” she said. “Sometimes there’s unrealistic expectations, there’s less space for them to lead in different ways.”

Women who succeed in scaling the glass cliff, however, can use the experience to burnish their own credentials. Ryan pointed to Mary Barra, the former CEO of General Motors who ended up winning leadership awards.

“To succeed in glass cliff positions leaders need time, resources and support to enable them to turn the crisis around,” Ryan said.

— With assistance from Julie Johnsson