Even if the glass cliff does exist, the cancellation cliff is more dangerous

October 13, 2026 — 4:00pm

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In tough times, people become nostalgic for the good old days. Which is why, I suppose, the kids are so into ’90s fashion these days. In case you missed it, a very 2018 vintage of cancel culture made a come-back this week, when a McKinsey partner got dumped from his leadership position in the firm’s global think tank for challenging the notion of the “glass cliff”.

The glass cliff is the idea that women are only handed leadership roles when an organisation is in some kind of crisis – and about to tip into the abyss.

Now, there are a couple of issues here. The first is the slavering cowardice of the management consultancy in responding to the incident by relieving a highly competent leader of a role he was demonstrably succeeding in because of a what should have been a reasonably innocuous social media dispute. Another is whether the concept of the glass cliff is based on such rock-solid evidence that it is uncontestable.

I know the consultant in question professionally and........

© The Age