The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

100 years ago today, August 18th, Tennessee became the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, and a week from now, August 26th, it was officially signed into law. August 26th is now known as Women’s Equality Day here in the United States. While we are celebrating this watershed moment in US history, we should ask ourselves how far the 19th Amendment went towards granting women’s equality?

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.

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.

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?

This season of Covid has certainly shed a new light on the inequities in the workforce and communities. From the new pressures on working women with children at home full-time, to the data that’s emerging on how Covid is impacting the underserved, to horrific demonstrations of racism. Many have said that Covid has become the tinder for the flames that are needed to burn down the vast array of inequities that exist. From a gender perspective we have seen lots of “new” goals and promises make headlines, with more and more organizations willing to state their commitment to a 50/50 gender balanced workforce by 2030. Yes, in response to the coronavirus, but also in response to data like this from McKinsey’s latest “Diversity Wins” which states: “companies in the top quartile for gender diversity in their executive teams were 25 percent more likely to experience above-peer average profitability.”

This week we invited Tim Kemp, our Senior Consultant based in the United Kingdom, to author our most recent blog post. Read ON! --- 35 years ago I wrote a chapter in a book called Gender and Work. My chapter was entitled ‘Who dares loses’ and was a modest attempt to encourage men to appreciate that greater gender equality meant accepting that there would be more capable women in positions that men had traditionally seen as their own preserve. In other words, if men were successful in playing a part in ensuring that power was more fairly redistributed, then it would also mean that we (men) would have to embrace the fact that many of us would lose some of that power. The more women took their places on boards and in the C-suite, the more they would replace men who had found a comfortable home there. A classic zero-sum-game. And while there is still a logic to the maths, this narrow assessment misses out on some fabulously important elements. Elements that have become my most valuable learning around the dynamics of inclusion in organisations over the past three decades.

In celebration of Pride Month, we invited Michelle Redfern, our Senior Consultant based in Melbourne, Australia, to author this blog post. Read ON! --- I have been in a deeply committed and loving relationship with my (now) wife for nearly 20 years. Our relationship is public knowledge. However, in the early years of our relationship I wasn’t ‘out’ about my same sex relationship, particularly in my workplace. I made this choice because amongst other things, I was fearful of being judged and having my career aspirations affected because of my sexual identity. I worried about the negative consequences of being openly gay at work. LGBTIQ+ people are often not able to bring their full self to work, feel like they have to hide elements of their life and have their psychological well-being compromised by feelings of ‘otherness’. This is a significant issue that 68% of LGBTIQ+ people in America are still grappling with.

BOSTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Women, a distinguished global consulting firm noted for championing workplace culture transformation and promoting Gender Balance in corporate leadership, announces it has entered into in a strategic partnership with the Northeast Human Resources Association (NEHRA). Leading Women will leverage the opportunity to provide thought leadership to NEHRA, the largest HR organization in the Northeast. The partnership will enhance NEHRA's commitment to providing its more than 2,600 members with relevant and timely educational programs for HR professionals by offering innovative research-based solutions as a resource to help accelerate women's career growth.

Wondering how you can navigate to the “new normal” when you’re not even sure what the new normal is? Although you may not realize it, change is constant, and acknowledging this means you have actually taken the first step to the path forward. Leading Women, named a 2020 Top 10 Leadership Development Training/Coaching Company by HR Tech Outlook, put together the following list to help you navigate and emerge successfully as your organization transitions out of quarantine.

BOSTON, May 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Women, one of the world's premier global consulting firms for bringing Gender Balance to corporate leadership, has been recognized by HR Tech Outlook as a Top 10 Leadership Development Training/Coaching Company for 2020, and featured among an elite group of companies in the Leadership special edition of HR Tech Outlook magazine. "We are honored to make the HR Tech Top 10 List, and to be acknowledged for our innovative, research-based solutions and proven women's leadership development programs, which have been helping organizations achieve workplace culture transformation for almost two decades," said Kelly Lockwood Primus, CEO & President of Leading Women.