The Advocacy Triangle: Building Women Leaders

The significant lack of women in top jobs, influential positions or in positions with decision-making authority, is an enormous roadblock to success for most organizations. It is a known fact that companies with women on their boards and leadership teams do better in profitability, gross margins, valuation, employee tenure and performance, and overall competitive positioning.

We shouldn't need to ask why. Companies built on diverse talents and insights; gender differences, differences in race and sexual orientation, the talents of extroverts and introverts, the talents of non-english speaking cultures, different cultures - these companies create value when it comes to having a successful organization and meaningful impact.

Our challenge is not recognizing that difference is better, but how do we actively promote and make diverse people successful. I have spent years working alongside organizations in efforts to support women grow their careers. Companies have built job sharing programs, expanded their recruiting efforts and financially supported women in stem. Companies have taken women showing leadership potential and sent them to prestigious schools for more development, learning and training. All in the hopes that once in the workplace, these women can thrive, succeed and go on to leadership positions.

Yet we still continue to see the same small numbers of women in leadership. We still see few women CEO's and even fewer women on boards. There are many many policies, programs, financial changes and commitments a company can pursue to enable and grow women leadership, and we will cover these in other blogs. But one of the most significant challenges companies typically do not address, is day-to-day advocacy and understanding within the workplace, and the impact this can have (or lack thereof) on the day-to-day experiences a woman has in her place of work.

There are some simple, effective and high impact things you can do tomorrow to change this.

Men as Mentors: Men are part of the solution

With so few women in management and leadership positions, the burden to become every woman's mentor on the few women in those roles, is real. Equally, not all women in leadership roles can be good mentors, or have the influence to help their mentee.

Men are needed as mentors and coaches to support and advocate for women in leadership. It can also help your male leadership, by educating them about the real struggles women in management and up-and-coming roles face as they navigate their career.

Align your up and coming women with male leaders at the top who you believe can mentor, are advocates for women in leadership and have the ability to influence and coach within the organization. With a male mentee a woman can learn what your leadership culture looks like, what might be expected from them and can gain an advocate. With a female mentee, your male leader can learn about how your leadership culture might not be inclusive, they can become educated about the barriers to women, and become part of the solution, not the problem.

Male Mentors Need Female Mentors: Understanding & Validation

Many male mentors, even those with female spouses, friends, daughters, family members, men who believe they have a good understanding of the differences and struggles that women face, don't always get it.

Why can't she speak up during that meeting....what is holding her back, they might think? Why does she not have confidence in herself? Why is she being so aggressive and assertive in her management style, no one is going to "like" her if she does that!

- A male mentor needs someone else to help them understand what it means to be female in the workplace.

- They need another woman who can, outside of the mentor relationship, explain and validate, support and educate them, about the challenges a woman faces in a professional career.

- Another woman can validate why it is so hard to speak up when you so often get spoken over!

- Another woman can validate how unfair it is to be judged for being assertive when men get to be assertive without judgement or why "likability" isn't a fair requirement for women leaders.

This type of female mentor doesn't have to be an executive. They don't have to be a functional expert, or more senior or more experienced in business. They have to have experience being female in the workplace and be willing to coach a male leader who might be more senior to them. While there may be very few female executives in the organization, a woman at any level, in any role across the organization can offer this insight to a male mentor.

Having a male leader successfully mentor a woman in your organization, requires having that male leader be given education from other women in the organization.

In my experience it is this coaching triangle that has by far the most impact and effectiveness in the day-to-day work of enabling women leaders.

A Broad Female Leadership Network: Seek Outside Help

Women who are growing in their leadership roles do need female executives to engage with them. The challenge is that with so few female executives, not only is their time rarely available, but their styles and approaches, their background and expertise, differ greatly and aren't always a fit for other women.

If you are lucky enough to have female executives on your team, utilize them and their networks to bring other women to the table, from different organizations, fields of study, backgrounds and experiences. Enable the women in your organization to have access to women with various styles and from all parts of a professional experience.

Mentoring is Work - Account for it and Appreciate it

Mentoring women requires that men and women within your organization put time aside, so don't forget to recognize and enable those you ask to be mentors. Give them more time with an assignment if they are busy helping a woman navigate her promotion. Recognize the mentor when their mentee is successful. An investment of time is an investment of money and while your organization will be better off as a result for having more women in leadership roles, the cost of mentoring is real, so show some patience, support and appreciation for those with the commitment and passion to mentor.

Also, try not to be diminishing in your view of women. A woman's experience is female if she presents herself as female, and/or if believes herself to be female, and/or if she identifies as female. It is how we see ourselves and are perceived that impacts and restricts our paths to success. So regardless for whether your female employees are female at birth or not, enable all women in your organization to be leaders.