The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

Kelly Primus

CEO | Leading NOW | Kelly Primus is a dynamic change maker and expert on Cultural Dynamics in the Workplace, Inclusion, and Leadership Development who understands firsthand the challenges women leaders and underrepresented talent face in their careers. Before becoming CEO of Leading NOW, Kelly was President of its Leading Women division, and prior to that held a successful corporate career where she was often the only woman executive at the table, fueling her passion for Women’s Leadership Development and Inclusion. Kelly’s desire to transform and help organizations change behaviors & company culture to be inclusive for all, make her a sought-after thought leader & speaker on Inclusive Leadership Development, The Missing 33%™, and a myriad of DEI topics. She enjoys sharing her knowledge on how those areas intersect with her expertise as a business person through her blog posts and appearing on business and leadership podcasts.

Posts by Kelly Primus

How to Engage & Retain More Women - Top 5 Things You Can Do!

Today, we continue our 7-part series “Gender + Diversity Playbook: Setting and Achieving Your Goals for 2021 and Beyond.” In Part 1, we covered 2020’s misses & 2030 goals, and in Part 2 Leading Women’s CEO shared the Top 5 things that CEOs can do to close its gender + diversity leadership gap. Next up, we’ll break down those Top 5 actions—addressing each action individually—to help organizations get the results they want, to achieve gender balance in the organization. --- How to Engage & Retain More Women Executive commitment to, and sponsorship of, women’s advancement—advocating for the business case: Simply put, leaders need to demonstrate their commitment by mentoring/sponsoring women in order to ENGAGE & RETAIN them. Make sure your leadership puts them into the mix for promotions and make sure they’re part of their own succession plans.
4 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Leading Women

Kelly Lockwood Primus Featured on The Leadership Hacker Podcast

I recently had the pleasure of joining Steve Rush on his podcast "The Leadership Hacker." I'm a big fan, and was excited to be invited to speak with him. Before the official interview, he and I discussed our perspectives on women in leadership - and I was thrilled to hear that during his career he frequently hired more women leaders than men! And, I'm pleased to say that Steve is absolutely committed to gender balance in his podcast, and will be working diligently to interview an equal number of men & women leaders.
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Gender Dynamics Leading Women

From One CEO to Another—It’s Time to Get Focused

Time for a reality check about “Closing the Leadership Gender Gap”—something every CEO should strive for in their organization, but few actually get right (or get it done!). And while you’ve probably been talking about becoming a more inclusive and diverse company for a while now, have you ever really asked yourself why you’re no closer to closing that gap than you were ten years ago?
5 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Gender Dynamics Women of Color Business Imperative Making the Business Case CEO Advice

LEADERSHIP at the pace of Global Change...

One of my favorite quotes is from a Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, who said ”Change is the only constant in life.” I’ve been thinking about the pace of Change for months now. I see Change happening at our clients’ organizations and I see the toll it is taking on their employees. And, I have been asking the question: “How do you lead in the face of constant change?”
4 min read | Kelly Primus
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Leadership Change Virtual Programs

Happy Holidays from the Team @ Leading Women

During the 2019 Holiday season, in lieu of sending gifts, Leading Women has a long standing tradition of making donations to local and national organizations that support women & girls. This year we proudly support:
1 min read | Kelly Primus
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Leading Women

Should We Really Be Celebrating?

Today is International Women’s Day. I’ve been thinking about today and Women’s History Month for weeks in order to write this post. What words of wisdom would I be able to share with our colleagues, our clients and our followers?
3 min read | Kelly Primus
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Gender Diversity Business Imperative Making the Business Case CEO Advice Leading Women

CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion

Recently, I was asked to present information on “How to Make a Business Case for Gender Diversity” at the 100% Talent Wage Gap Summit in Seattle. Citing research on how increasing the percentage of women in leadership delivers significantly better business results from well-known organization’s like Credit Suisse, McKinsey & Co., Peterson Institute for International Economics, EY, Catalyst, and the Centre for Talent Innovation, I had all the data back-up I needed to make the case for investing in diversity initiatives.
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Business Imperative Making the Business Case

Great! A Business Imperative. Now what do I do?

In a recent blog, I mentioned a story about a group of 72 companies who have committed to making gender diversity a business imperative, with accountability for it within the senior executive team. This story has caused quite a bit of commotion in social media and we’ve seen a lot of questions popping up in LinkedIn: “How are they planning on preparing the women for leadership?” “What will they do differently?” “How will they identify what needs to be done (so I can emulate it)?
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Gender Dynamics Leadership Breakthrough Leadership Women's Leadership Development Business Imperative Making the Business Case

Making Gender Diversity a Business Imperative?

In an interview on Worldwide Business with kathy ireland® that will be airing this coming weekend, Leading Women’s CEO Susan Colantuono was asked the question: “If you had one piece of advice to give to a CEO, what would it be? She answered, “As a CEO, or as an executive or director for that matter, if women aren’t proportionately represented throughout your organization, you aren’t facing a women’s issue — you’re facing a talent development issue with business implications. And so it’s important to bring your personal commitment and the same level of organizational accountability to that challenge as you would to any business issue.”
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Gender Dynamics Leadership Gender Diversity Women's Leadership Development Making the Business Case CEO Advice

Why is everyone STILL talking about Gender Diversity?

Most executives believe the "gender problem" isn't real. And many wonder why we're still talking about it. I recently read two reports on Gender Diversity published by McKinsey& Company: Women in the Workplace 2015, and The CEO’s Guide to Gender Diversity, that illustrate how real it is and why it hasn't been fixed.
2 min read | Kelly Primus
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Closing the Gender Gap Gender Dynamics Leadership Gender Bias