Summary
The Broken Rung: The glass ceiling is not the biggest barrier for women in tech and automotive, the first promotion is. The Broken Rung leaves capable women behind because they receive less specific feedback and lack active sponsors. Stop fixing women and fix the system. Learn how to provide outcome tied feedback, act as a real advocate, and repair the first step up to retain your top female talent.
The glass ceiling gets all the attention. Yet most women never climb high enough to even reach it.
This post is written for leaders and HR professionals who want to understand why their talent pipeline keeps narrowing despite equally strong women. For the manager who passed over a capable colleague at her first promotion without noticing. For the HR lead who senses the problem is not at the very top but far earlier. And for anyone who suspects the broken rung is not a women’s issue but a leadership issue.
Why the glass ceiling is the wrong image
The image of the glass ceiling suggests women rise almost to the top and fail only at the last invisible barrier. But the data tell a different story. The real break lies at the very bottom, at the first promotion from individual contributor to manager, where the switches for everything that follows are set. This first broken step on the ladder is called the broken rung, and whoever overlooks it searches for the problem at the wrong end of the career ladder for a lifetime.
What an applicant couple in Slovakia taught me
Two applications, two very different performances
My name is Andy Balbus. During the build-up in Prievidza a couple applied to me, both anonymous here. He interviewed first, very self-assured and certain he could do everything, yet could not fully convince in the conversation. Then she came, also confident, and what I saw in her was a real fighter nature. She still lacked the experience for the target role, but there was a prior role that would bring her that experience in one to two years and pave the jump.
The hire and a surprising inner stance
I hired her, and she settled quickly into her role. What I observed over time surprised me: despite her fighting spirit she carried a very negative inner stance, as if the whole world were against her. I later saw this pattern in many people who came from an environment that gave them little support. As a leader I faced the task of handling this base negativity without simply dismissing it.
The energy the perspective shift cost
It cost me a great deal of empathy and energy to shift the angles with her, to turn challenges into opportunities and efforts into successes. I eventually promoted her to the final role, because she had earned it. After I left the company, she left too. For a long time I thought her negativity was simply her nature, until I looked more closely at the research and understood that I had searched for the cause in the wrong place.
Why her conditioning was no coincidence
She was not born negative, she came to me already conditioned, by the experiences she had made before. A system that slows women at the first step, gives them less clear feedback, and provides an advocate less often produces exactly this stance. What I read as a character trait was in truth an understandable response to a broken path upward. And the energy I invested in the perspective shift was not the correction of a flaw but the right answer to a structural deficit.
For a long time I took her negativity for her character. It was the scar of a system that made her doubt at every rung.
Andy Balbus, 25+ years automotive, DE-SK-IN
You recognize this pattern in a colleague or in your own career? Then let us look together at where the first rung needs repairing in your organization. The Reality Check is a 30-minute diagnostic conversation, no slides, no sales pitch.
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What the numbers say about the broken rung
81 women per 100 men at the first promotion
The broken rung is no guess, it is the best-documented barrier in women’s advancement. The annual Women in the Workplace study by McKinsey and LeanIn, the largest of its kind, shows that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women make the same step, and for women of color it is just 77. Because this gap opens at the very beginning, women never make it up at any higher stage, men simply outnumber women at the leadership level before the glass ceiling ever comes into play. The research behind it first named this effect in 2019 and made clear that the real barrier lies at the bottom, not the top.
Less feedback, less often an advocate
Why the first rung breaks for women has little to do with ability and much with the environment. An analysis in Harvard Business Review shows that women receive less specific, outcome-tied developmental feedback and more criticism of their style rather than their impact. Without clear feedback it is hard to improve in a targeted way, and without an advocate one is put forward less often: only 31 percent of entry-level women have a sponsor, against 45 percent of men.
Exactly here lies the explanation for the negative inner stance I saw in my employee. The researcher Margarita Mayo has also shown that women adjust their self-image faster after feedback, reacting more finely to social cues. In an environment that sends few clear signals, this sensitivity almost inevitably turns into self-doubt.
Why the automotive industry makes it especially hard
In the automotive industry the effect sharpens, because the sector is male-dominated. Women make up only about a quarter of the workforce according to Deloitte and the US International Trade Commission, roughly 24 percent in the US and 25 percent in the EU, and 68 percent of respondents in a 2025 Deloitte study see women as underrepresented in industry leadership. That also means the first promotion is usually decided by a man, as in my case by me. Exactly for that reason it is no soft side issue how these men decide and how they give feedback, but the lever on which the broken rung is repaired or cemented.
Three honest questions before you read on
How many women did you promote into a leadership role for the first time last year, measured against the number of men?
Do you give your female colleagues the same specific, outcome-tied feedback as your male ones, or more often comments on style?
And who in your company actively acts as an advocate for the next female leader?
If you hesitate on one of these questions, the next section is for you.
Repairing the first rung: the BYG path in three steps
1. See the broken rung instead of correcting the women
Step one is a change of view. Do not look for the problem in the women but in the system that slows them at the first rung. Whoever experiences a colleague as too negative, too cautious, or too little assertive should first ask which environment produced that stance. How unconscious bias works in daily life is deepened in the post on gender bias in leadership, and the protected space in which women find their own map instead of others’ corrections is offered by female executive coaching.
2. Give clear feedback and actively promote
Step two is the one I did intuitively right without knowing the research. Give specific, outcome-tied feedback instead of comments on style, and become the active advocate who lifts a capable woman into the role before she feels a hundred percent certain. The craft for this is provided by open-ended questions and active listening, and how a guided transition succeeds is shown by engineering leadership coaching. Anyone guiding a woman into leadership will find the fitting frame in expert-to-leader mentoring and in team lead mentoring.
3. Turn problems into opportunities, for good
Step three is the one that cost the most energy with my employee and pays off the most. Help a leader who comes from a discouraging environment to turn her view around, to make opportunities out of challenges and successes out of efforts, without talking down her legitimate vigilance. How to hold a clear line of your own along the way is shown by the post on setting boundaries as a leader. The Your Power Within program finds and strengthens that inner power, and that real openness only arises in a safe climate is shown by the posts on psychological safety and the team storming phase.
You want to repair the first rung in your organization before the next talent leaves?
Go to Your Power Within: make your own strength visible
Or book your Reality Check directly: 30 minutes, only your situation
Voices from the Field
Why these two voices on a page about the broken rung? Smriti Kiran Singh-Sawant describes how honest feedback and strategic insight helped her gain clarity about her values and strengthen her leadership presence, exactly the clear feedback that women, according to research, get too rarely. Ioana Diaconescu, in turn, names what a truly safe space produces, one in which you stop performing, the precondition for a negative inner stance to change at all.
Andy brought a rare combination of deep listening, honest feedback, and strategic insight that helped me grow not just as a leader, but as a person. He helped me gain clarity on my values, navigate tough decisions with confidence, and strengthen my leadership presence.
Smriti Kiran Singh-Sawant, Functional Safety Specialist, Brose Group
Andy doesn’t overthink his words, but has an ability to say exactly what needs to be said. He’s a warm and attentive listener, and creates a space where honesty comes naturally. If you’re looking for a coach you can stop performing with, Andy is the one.
Ioana Diaconescu, Impact and Sustainability
FAQ: Straight Answers to Skeptical Questions
Q1: What exactly is the broken rung?
The broken rung is the gap in promotion rates between men and women at the very first step from individual contributor to manager. For every 100 men promoted, only 81 women make the same step. Because the gap opens right at the start, it is never made up at any higher level. More terms around leadership and careers are explained in the glossary.
Q2: Is the broken rung not the same as the glass ceiling?
No, and the difference is decisive. The glass ceiling describes a barrier far up, just below the top. The broken rung lies at the very bottom, at the first promotion into management. Because most women are lost here, it is the larger and earlier barrier. Whoever looks only at the glass ceiling overlooks that most women never even come near it.
Q3: Are women not simply more sensitive or more negative at work by nature?
The research does not support that framing. It is true that women react a bit more finely to social cues and adjust their self-image faster after feedback. But the negative inner stance one sometimes observes is largely a response to an environment that offers less clear feedback and an advocate less often. A study by Oregon State University even found that men react more negatively to status threats than women. The cause therefore lies in the system, not in the nature.
Q4: How do I recognize that I as a leader contribute to the broken rung?
By two patterns in your own behavior. First: do you give women the same specific, outcome-tied feedback as men, or more often vague comments on style and demeanor? Second: do you promote women only once they long overfulfill every requirement, while you trust men with the jump on the basis of potential? Whoever hesitates on either reinforces the effect unconsciously. How excessive control paralyzes new leaders in particular is shown by the post on micromanagement.
Q5: Why does this affect the automotive industry especially?
Because the sector is strongly male-dominated. Women make up only about a quarter of the workforce, and 68 percent of respondents in a Deloitte study see women as underrepresented in leadership. That means the first promotion is almost always decided by a man. So the lever to repair the broken rung lies exactly with male leaders, and their way of deciding and giving feedback makes the difference. Across cultures this intensifies further, as intercultural mentoring shows.
Q6: Do I favor women if I actively counter this?
No, you create fairness where it is missing. The broken rung means equally capable women are promoted less often than men. Whoever balances that favors no one but corrects a measurable imbalance. Clear feedback and active advocacy for women are not a bonus but what men already receive more often.
Q7: What does feedback have to do with the broken rung?
A great deal, because feedback is the currency of development. Whoever receives only vague or style-focused feedback can improve less in a targeted way and thereby appears less ready for the next step. Women, according to research, receive exactly this weaker feedback. Whoever gives specific, outcome-tied feedback gives a woman the same basis for advancement that men take for granted.
Q8: I promoted a woman, and she still left. What went wrong?
Possibly nothing about the promotion itself, but about the environment afterward. In my case I promoted the employee, and she left after I had left the company. A repaired rung holds only when the support does not hang on a single person but is anchored in the system. A single good leader is therefore not enough, it takes a culture that carries the support, anchored for example in jointly developed team charter rules.
Q9: How does a program like Your Power Within concretely help?
It works on the inner side of the broken rung. Where the system has sown doubt for years, Your Power Within helps make one’s own strength visible and usable again, without talking down the legitimate vigilance. It does not correct the woman but gives her the map to see through the structural game and direct her energy toward her own goals.
Q10: Is this not HR’s job rather than the leaders’?
Both are needed, but the leaders decide in daily life. HR can design fair processes, yet the actual promotion, the daily feedback, and the advocacy lie with the direct supervisors. Especially in the male-dominated industry it is the male leaders who repair or cement the broken rung in the concrete case. Responsibility for that cannot be delegated away to HR.
Q11: How does BYG concretely support this topic?
The core is Your Power Within for the inner strength and female executive coaching for the structural map. For leaders who want to repair the broken rung in their area there is engineering leadership coaching, for the acute relief of overloaded teams there is Accelerate Now, and how such developments work in real starting situations is shown in the case studies.
The next step at the first rung
If this post describes your talent pipeline, start where the break occurs: with Your Power Within for the inner strength of your female talents or female executive coaching for the structural clarity. How unconscious bias slows the rise is shown by the post on gender bias in leadership, the mindset behind fair leadership is described in the BYG core principles, and the full range of guidance is found in the coaching hub.
About the author: three worlds at the first rung
You do not recognize the broken rung from a textbook but from your own responsibility for promotions. Andy Balbus brings together three worlds that rarely meet in one person: 25+ years of operational automotive responsibility with 150M € revenue accountability and an R&D hub of 40+ engineers built greenfield, the methodology of an ICF PCC certified coach with more than 1,000 hours, and the intercultural perspective of four years as the accountable executive in Slovakia plus two years in Pune, with experience across DE, SK, IN, CN, MX, and UK. He has decided on a woman’s first promotion himself and learned that the real work lies in the system, not in the woman.
Results or Excuses: The Reality Check
The next capable woman in your pipeline already stands at the first rung, whether you see her or not. The Reality Check is a 30-minute diagnostic conversation: you bring a concrete situation where a talent is not advancing, and together we find the point where the rung needs repairing, with the combined view from leadership, coaching, and culture change. No slides, no sales pitch, only your reality and a fair ladder.
Book your Reality Check: 30 minutes, only your situation
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