The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

Chances are your corporate initiatives to advance women have been successful in moving women into middle management. However moving women into senior and executive positions often presents a greater challenge.

Keep your eyes open for our colorful "white" paper on women's advancement. In the meantime, did you see these?

Spotting (and Developing) Leaders! Thanks to Nneka C. who last month pointed us to the HBR article on 21st Century Talent Spotting because of the alignment between the model in one of the sidebars and Leading Women's definition of leadership. For over 14 years, we've been defining leadership as "using the greatness in you to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes by engaging the greatness in others."

In spite of decades of research identifying organizational barriers to women's advancement and strong business cases for getting more women into leadership positions, we continue to run into organizations (sadly often HR executives) who resist calls to take action to close the gender gap. One organization we know of treated their women's initiative leaders in the same way that our colleagues were treated back in the 1970s (when women's initiatives WERE a "futuristic social experiment").

Michael Simonds, CEO* of UNUM wrote recently about women's advancement and closing the leadership gender gap. The whole article is worth a read and especially his awareness of the impact of gender dynamics (gender bias, stereotypes, assumptions) on women's advancement.

Here's a fact about closing the leadership gender gap that might surprise you. Back in the 1970s, progressive companies addressed the challenge of women's advancement issues with many tools including multi-day workshops that directly surfaced and addressed gender-based stereotypes. This is surprising because until just recently, companies have tended to avoid this topic like the plague. This in spite of the fact that studies continue to point to barriers created by gender-based expectations and assumptions.

One of 2013's top stories for women in leadership was to see Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors become the first woman CEO of any auto company! Mary's route to the top is similar in many ways to other Fortune 500 women. Like most F500 women CEOs, Mary:

When it comes to closing the gender gap at the top, we have over 13 years of research, so you can imagine how I struggled to create a 10 minute talk (I failed - it's about 14). But it's the most succinct summary of what we know and you're sure to hear something to help close the gender gap at the top and/or achieve your career goals!

Career advice received by women covers only 2/3 of the success equation in business. This Missing 33%® has serious implications for a woman’s chances of being seen as high potential, receiving promotions to senior positions, receiving optimal benefits from mentoring relationships and nurturing the next generation of women leaders.