"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."

The great Madeleine Albright once quoted.

It stands in correlation to the subjects discussed at the “Women in Leadership” forum I attended in Copenhagen in December. The forum was a powerhouse of fascinating women and a few men who all are great role models or alleys for women around the world. The importance of alley-ships in form of partners, mentors, or sponsors is very crucial as we all need alley-ships to grow in our professional career. ?

The forum was arranged by the Ambassador of the United States in Denmark Mr. @Alan M. Leventhal and the Foreign Ministry of Denmark in collaboration with Above&Beyond Group. I was blessed to have the chance to speak with Mrs. Indra Nooyi who was the keynote speaker in the forum. For those of you who do not know Mrs. Nooyi, she is an Indian woman and was the former CEO of PepsiCo and is a great inspiration to young women who aspire to become leaders. Mrs. Nooyi and I discussed India and the workplaces today- especially the importance of the POSH act of 2013 and how it has been incorporated into the Indian corporations. We also discussed the significance of building talent and continuously building talent funnel in corporations.

I am still wondering in today′s business landscape if companies are remembering to build funnel from talent or out of preference from certain criteria determined by a dominant male leadership?

How these funnels are built and nurtured must come from a leadership who is ready and accepting the changes of the culture in the company, if such is occurring. Many companies today are changing the culture and the swift can be drastically, but often the companies would need support from an outside change management consultant to help them with a safe landing.

Another inspiring speaker at the forum was Mrs. @Phaedria Marie St. Hilaire. She is the co-founder of Professional Women of Color. Mrs. St. Hilaire is also a STEM woman like me. In addition, she is married to the Danish Scientist Mr. @Morten Meldal who just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Mrs. St. Hilaire is also an advocate for promoting more women in STEM to win the Nobel Prize as there is a lack of women being presented. Mrs. St. Hilaire started her speech on how the audience sees her, as she is a woman, from the Caribbean, colored, mother, scientist, etc. Her speech puzzled me as she spoke about the biases, we all possess and are grown up with. Biases, it is important to address, will be hidden in the process when companies are hiring talent. ?

It was a reminder for companies to build talent funnel and build it without biases, but on talent. If corporations implement measures to diminish and erase biases, more diversity will happen. One way can be to build active alley-ships, so women are more visible to the leadership.

Adding to the point, I have worked with corporations on many different levels in the range of D&I in workshops as well as an advisor at a global scale, and the common conclusion is often that collaboration across a diverse and inclusive employee pool leads to better well being, which leads to better products and therefore higher turnover for the companies.

No need to mention that the inclusion measurements are crucial for success as workplaces will never be able to prosper in the future, unless they effectuate inclusion as well in their workplace strategies. ?

Happy New Year!