The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

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)?

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.”

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?

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 work hard with clients to engage managers and executives in actions to close the leadership gender gap. During one of our multi-month leadership programs, the managers (most often men) who have nominated the women participants join us for 3 major topics: What is Leadership?, The Missing 33%® and Make the Most of Mentoring™. It's an effective way to address several gender dynamics - including the powerful one we call "Men's Culture of Mentorship/Sponsorship."

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Kudos to three of our clients, Turner Construction, DHL Global Forwarding EMEA and Alcatel-Lucent. Here's why: As part of its program for high potential women, Turner invited executives and the women's managers to presentations on The Missing 33%® and the importance of PIE Mentoring™. Both sessions gave the managers insights into the subtle ways that men are often groomed for senior positions, but women aren't.

In general, it is a mentor’s job to help her protégé position herself to achieve career success and the protégé’s job to work with her mentor to achieve career goals. When it comes to career success, our research indicates that men and women speak differently about mentors and their roles. Understanding this difference will help engage managers and executives as better mentors (and women as stronger protégés).

Too often mentors coach women on confidence and personality rather than business and financial ability. Diversity Executive magazine recently interviewed Susan L. Colantuono, CEO of Leading Women. Below are excerpts from the interview. (Please share this important info liberally with colleagues in and outside your company and other women in your organization.)

"Acquaintances...represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have, the more powerful you are." Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point "Leaders who are good networkers...are the connectors...They master what sociologist Mark Granovetter calls the 'weak tie', a friendly yet casual social connection." Robin Gerber in Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way