The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

Is your organization doing enough to help underrepresented talent succeed? Probably not. While most DEI initiatives include communication plans, programs for employees to attend, and reviews of corporate policies, one of the most important elements is frequently overlooked or not addressed at all: The mindsets of leaders within the organization and how they impede inclusion. And while these mindsets may be unintentional–after all, leaders don’t have visibility into the challenges underrepresented talent face every day–this can derail your DEI goals. To take your DEI strategy from passive to powerful, DO THIS, NOT THAT…

When Collins Aerospace, a unit of Raytheon Technologies (Raytheon has 181,000 employees and 61,000 engineers), recognized their organization’s culture was not inclusive for women in leadership roles, they reached out to Leading Women for our expertise and advice.

In a recent blog, I addressed how to change the culture of your company to be more inclusive for all, and the four steps organizations must take to make a real and lasting DE&I impact: Assess Current State Align Leadership & Develop Your Roadmap Engage & Develop Your Team Members Deploy & Embed Revamped Mechanisms These four steps are critical to your DE&I journey and cannot be overstated. Remember, to make real progress, people, and the organizational cultures they are part of, must change.

In part two of our Leadership Lessons from Women research series, we asked some of the most successful women leaders in business today what they felt was the one leadership trait that was most important to their own success. Not surprisingly, they used words that fit squarely into our 21st century definition of leadership. Here are the results:

A Catalyst for an Inclusive Culture We all know that mentorship can help pave the way for career success on the road to leadership. We also know that leaders drive culture. But for a culture to truly be inclusive, leaders must model inclusivity in all that they do. For organizations and leaders who recognize the value of creating an inclusive culture, but struggle to fundamentally shift their culture to one of inclusion for all, one proven and profound method is a formalized Reverse Mentoring program. Reverse Mentoring enables people in more senior positions to gain insight from having regular, semi-structured conversations with team members who are likely to see the world from a different perspective. The process aids in better decision-making, higher retention rates for diverse talent through greater job satisfaction, and giving invaluable exposure to under-represented talent, nurturing allies and advocates within senior ranks. Simply put, Reverse Mentoring is really about inclusion. In addition to having a positive impact on your company’s culture, Reverse Mentoring will liberate the power of all humans to generate the desired business outcomes needed to compete in today’s business environment.

January is National Mentoring Month –– a great time to start our new 5-part series called Leadership Lessons from Women Leaders.

In honor of National Mentoring Month, we asked a few of our own Leading Women experts to share a favorite mentoring moment. Not surprisingly, they confirmed what we’ve known all along, that when women learn business, strategic and financial acumen, they thrive. If you don’t currently have a mentor, January is a great month to find one. #NaMeMo

"If I'm in my office alone with a woman, she might file charges against me." "I don't dare take a protege out for lunch, she might accuse me." "Now I can't compliment a woman or shake her hand without being taken to court!" These are comments we hear when working with managers on closing the leadership gender gap. The comments are especially prevalent when we talk about the importance of mentoring women. And we aren't alone. Articles from the worlds of law, finance and beyond, publicize men's fears and the #MeToo backlash.

This blog is a departure in this way. Because it is a capstone for one of our Reverse Mentoring programs, it is a compilation of articles written by women and men on what it takes to be a great male ally for women in STEM. And rather than focus on who male allies are, the positions they hold or an academic definition of the term "male ally," here we focus on what male allies (and others) do to support the creation of level playing fields for women (especially those in STEM).

January is National Mentoring Month (#NaMeMo) in the United States, and while the month originally focused on mentoring youth, it has now grown to include all forms of mentoring. For us at Leading Women, our research has found that mentoring women is not only good for the women being mentored, but other women in the pipeline and their company's bottom line.