The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

6 TED Talks for Leadership Development and Career Success for Women We searched TED for the most viewed, most fascinating, most informative talks on women in business and on leadership and created a list of TED Talks that everyone should watch. Here's our list. Continue reading to see why! Why we have too few women leaders Dare to disagree The career advise you probably didn't get What it takes to be a great leader So we leaned in... now what? Color blind or color brave?

*From Leading Women's "On the Minds of Millennials: Leading Women's Survey on Gender and Careers" In a 2016 Linkedin post titled, Dear Men: Wake Up and Smell the Inequality, Adam Grant cited several studies as he wrote, "In corporate America, 88% of men think women have at least as many opportunities to advance as men. This is the finding of a major new study—almost 30,000 employees across 118 companies—by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company. Just 12% of men felt that women had fewer opportunities to advance in their organizations. Yet when you look at the actual data, women’s odds of advancement are 15% lower than men’s. It’s not because women are less capable: the evidence is strong that although men tend to be more confident leaders, on average women are more competent leaders."

Since the 1970s, many companies have understood and taken action on the business case for gender initiatives, made progress and reaped benefits. Others are still questioning whether this topic warrants their attention. In a recent interview for an upcoming TV biz news interview I was asked about this:

We use this blog to track the research into the correlation between the % of women in senior management and on boards and measurable business performance. It is updated as research comes in. You'll find related information on correlation v. causation here.

Sitting in a talent discussion a manager says, "She wouldn't want that assignment, she has young kids." Sound far fetched in the 21st century? It isn't! Our research finds that barriers created by mindsets like this are reported by women's focus groups in countries including the US, Canada, Brazil and India and focus groups of male managers in countries such as Belgium, China, Italy and Mexico.

Today, Tuesday, April 12, is Equal Pay Day in the United States. Equal Pay Day is day when women’s earnings finally “catch up” to men’s earnings from the previous year. Want to know how best to "celebrate" Equal Pay Day this year? Try these: Ask your HR team when the next wage equity audit will be conducted - and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Share well-researched information about the wage gap. For example: the WEF Global Gender Gap Report and Glassdoor report or any of the other articles listed below. Urge your elected officials to support wage equity. If you can self-nominate for advancement, do so. Contact Leading Women to see how we can help your company close the gender gap!

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.

We recently asked our cracker-jack researcher Lara Feghaly to decode the 10 most substantive articles on confidence that she could find. And to do the same with the book The Confidence Code. What she discovered is startling and crucial for women's career advancement. And we've turned it into an infographic for you.

The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Study is out - and Leading Women's research is in and neither is great news for companies without a leadership development program for their Millennial women: Deloitte research says: “This year’s survey shows that women are equally likely as men to rate 'opportunities for career progression and leadership roles' as a major factor for staying at or leaving a job.” “Millennials want to work for organizations that have a purpose beyond profit, and they want those organizations to provide opportunities to develop leadership skills. These may be the two most important factors in creating job satisfaction and long-term loyalty, especially among Millennial women.” “This year’s survey shows women (67 percent) are slightly more likely than men (64 percent) to leave their employers within the next five years. One reason could be that 48 percent of female respondents say they are 'being overlooked for potential leadership positions.'”

The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 2015 Gender Gap Report, so we thought we'd take a look at the 10 year trend in the US and in some of the countries where our clients are working to close the gender gap in their companies. While progress is slow, many nations are making progress - and we are grateful for the improvements they are making in the lives of women.