India’s Best Workplaces for Women 2022 by Great Place to Work Institute India

Ever wondered, why this phenomenon of dwindling numbers for women in leadership still persists today? Can we continue to attribute it only to a lack of women candidates & women’s life stages? That would be na?ve. Organizations have prematurely only focused on a singular approach – whether it is adding flexibility in policy or creating a stand-alone mentorship program; the likes of which rarely produce sustainable impact. Developing women leaders demands a more integrated & multi-pronged approach.

This article is not about numbers. There’s enough available to tell you that there is a gap.

This article is about examining our actions today & taking steps, both big and small, to create genuine impact tomorrow. And it’s more about action and less about intent. Here are my humble recommendations -

What can leaders do to contribute to women leadership?

Recognize your privilege

Michael J Sandel was pertinent when he quoted - “The more we regard our success as our own doing, the less responsibility we feel for those who fall behind.”

Whether privilege comes from pedigree or position, there is no debating that leaders have a larger canvas of influence. Therefore, how we use our tailwinds determines the legacy we leave. A word of sponsorship in a closed room, a presence in a Women Network meeting, a seat on a Women’s Day panel, a question to your Manager about diversity or resisting a joke on a smoke break – all these choices can go a long way in creating an environment of support & sponsorship. Leadership is visible. It can’t be substituted through an email or through a policy document but it needs to be demonstrated through every day actions of support.

Apart from the world’s global leaders being are active sponsors to high-performing women – an individual purpose, organizations also need to hold leaders accountable, not only for numbers but also for their personal time and involvement. A leading financial institution holds their leaders accountable for the following actions - ?

1.?????Sponsoring 1 DEI initiative

2.?????Ensuring 50% participation of your business teams in DEI events

3.?????Representing DEI in external forum

What can organizations do to build more women leaders?

Dial M for Mentors

People Managers have an inherent responsibility of developing their team members and investing in their career growth. However, while team development is aligned to sophisticated performance management processes, it is often also a victim of a Manager’s inherent biases. For e.g. will a women stay in the organization if I invest in her training? will she be able to manage a dominantly male team if she gets promoted? While it’s no secret that individual beliefs interfere with team management, a sustainable way of ensuring that women aren’t left behind is to build a robust mentoring program.

But having a mentoring program isn’t enough. In fact, it’s customary to have one today. Several mentoring programs fade away after a fanfare launch for two reasons – quality & commitment of mentors and complexity of the program itself. In 2017, PayPal experimented with a new mentoring model that aimed at humanizing the connection. 6 women protégés were invited to interact with 1 senior leader in group sessions post which they could select the leader as their mentor and proceed for a one on one interaction. This was a shift from the classic mentor mentee assignment.

To ensure success for your organization, identify the right mentors. Those that have a bias for action and the humility to understand the modern day woman.

Tell a story – using data

While representation numbers across levels is a good place to start they are usually labelled as vanity metrics. To understand the process gaps, organizations need to dig deeper. For e.g. how many women are being considered for promotion every year or how many successors identified through succession planning processes are women? Once departments start tracking this data, gaps will emerge which will direct you to define clear actions to arrest the finer cracks & crevices. One way to encourage documenting the metrics is to create a compelling ‘reporting out’ dashboard that is visible to leaders.

Intel has a retention hotline for women called the Warmline. This proactive retention model is a confidential service that connects employees, within two business days, to a Retention Advisor who will offer real-time support and guidance through different options available. Employees can use the Warmline when they’re experiencing: ? Lack of progression ? Lack of integration ? Isolation ? Job skills mismatch or no development plan ? Strained relationship with their manager.

Through this hotline, Intel can identify with accuracy which department or team requires attention when it comes to women development and retention.

Is quantitative data enough? It’s hygiene. When coupled with stories from the floor, it creates emotion. And emotion is required for change. As the poet Ezra Pound said, “At the end of everything, only emotion endures”

Lastly, what can women do for their future?

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Challenge the Inner Patriarch

Sidra Stone, in her book “The Shadow King”, explored an unconscious self which echoed the voice of the external patriarchy. This voice is judgmental, critical and triggers guilt based on archaic beliefs about gender roles. It makes you question – ‘Are you a good mother if you spend hours in the office and leave your kids with a nanny? Such is its power that it can leave any woman doubting her decisions and choices & becoming one’s own impediment. Sometimes we underestimate the ancestral data that our body stores. Years of systems that have evolved & reside within us physically and emotionally. Hence interacting with women network groups and senior leaders who have lived through these experiences become a way to quieten this voice and to let your authentic identity emerge. So seek out peers, mentors and sponsors and self-examine your choices and their origins; or if you have a weaker voice, help other women quieten theirs.