Rearchitecting the Future: What Successful Organizations Are Doing to Create More Equitable Work Cultures
Leadership has always been critical and today has new and timely relevance given the unprecedented last couple of years. I have had the opportunity to speak with a number of innovative CEOs who have been driving change as leaders—not only on the innovation front but on the importance of having equity and inclusion on board as strategic pillars. The latter are key drivers to engage and retain talent and to help companies thrive by tapping into the wide range of diversity and ideation that are core elements for a high-performing organization.
As we enter Women’s History Month in March, there’s a collective sense that 2022 will be historic in helping to drive the new corporate America. Here’s a summary of some of the key recommendations and trends that CEOs have recently shared with me:
There’s No Single Path to Our Highest Potential of Leadership
Today’s leaders and executives’ called out that their there’s no longer just one blueprint or model you must follow for guiding your career path. Instead, there are increasingly different paths that companies are drawing on in terms of a candidate’s background and skillset that go beyond the traditional roles of operations and finance that were expected in the past.
Today, for example, the CHRO role could be a stepping stone to the CEO role as well, and the background and skillset required to move up to the C-suite and CEO level is much broader and more diverse, incorporating a wider range of potential cross-sectional and functional experience. Women hold the keys to a successful career path yet in many cases can be more reluctant than men to say yes to a new opportunity even though they’re more than ready. My advice for women is to lean into these opportunities that are presented. Focus less on why you won’t succeed and more on investing in the right relationships that will facilitate your success. Seek out mentors and coaches to support you, and be transparent about your career aspirations and potential growth areas.
In addition to valuing different skills, competencies, and backgrounds, this new leadership model also emphasizes diversity in terms of breadth of experience as well as networks. Most importantly, companies need leaders that are adaptable, resilient, and able to build cooperative bridges and relationships. Today’s leaders must be empathetic, compassionate, and vulnerable in creating inclusive cultures of belonging, and must hold others accountable to do the same. In order to increase diversity, organizations need leaders who really walk the talk and are very intentional, results focused, and able to drive mentoring and sponsorship throughout the organization.
Build a Flexible, Purposeful Culture
For employees, in light of the Great Resignation, building a flexible workplace is the new normal and is pivotal to attract and retain particularly women talent—especially for women of color as women who are struggling the most and leave the workplace in greater numbers. Leaders also need to be cognizant of issues around child and dependent care.
The hybrid work environment is here to stay and is not necessarily conducive to women staying connected to an organization that’s gone back into the workplace, so this model can create unintended bias. Because of this, companies must apply solutions including parental leave and support, and avoid creating a club that some people can’t belong to. Leaders should strive to create a sense of purpose for all and lean into those who are working remotely to make sure they feel that they belong, treating every employee with empathy and caring. These are soft skills that have traditionally been attributed to women, but all leaders need to apply them.
Don’t Just Get Rid of Inequity—Prevent It
Innovative companies not only strive to solve equity issues and eliminate other workplace problems in innovative ways but also to prevent workplace inequity from starting in the first place. We can’t just make assumptions around inequity but rather need to use today’s technologies to help ensure that companies promote people fairly, removing unconscious biases on the hiring team and giving opportunities to identify the skills needed to succeed to level the playing field for people in underrepresented groups.
Some of the best-practice companies show that the focus here should be on the strategic and financial piece of the puzzle, using data to solve gender-based pay discrepancies and other workplace inequities, with an emphasis on transparency—not just around salary but around board and leadership diversity. CEOs who I’ve spoken with have noted that since more regulations and laws are no doubt coming down the pike around the pay gap and median pay as well as diverse board membership, it’s smart to get ahead of that, ensuring that companies focus on upscaling and rescaling their people. They recommended making sure that companies use the right standards and tools around this to avoid gerrymandering, especially when it comes to pay and the workplace.
Lean In to Your Remote Workforce
In terms of the vision for the future and the attributes of purpose-drive organizations, the CEOs shared their recommendation that because they expect remote work to become permanent, leaders will need to adapt to that. That means making sure that they really support those organizations and people who are working remotely because demand for talent will continue to exceed supply. The key is to foster belonging in a remote work environment, helping employees connect their individual purpose to the greater purpose in the organization, and thus building an environment of trust.
Can you dial into the experience your employees are having at work, particularly as we are dynamically shaping the workplace for now and the future? What are you doing as a company to address these new challenges and build new and innovate practices that align with today’s new world of work? When leaders understand the importance of these questions in terms of the culture in the organization, they will have a competitive advantage in rearchitecting their future.
Contact me at info@shambaughleadership.com or link to SHAMBAUGH’s offerings to learn more about SHAMBAUGH’s Coaching and Development Programs for Women, Accelerating Gender Equity, Inclusive Culture, and Fundamentals of Leadership in a Post Covid Work Environment. I’d be happy to speak at your company on how women can champion their life/career and lean into their highest leadership.
Rebecca Shambaugh is President of SHAMBAUGH Leadership, and Founder of Women in Leadership and Learning. Rebecca is a contributing writer to Harvard Business Review, the HuffPost, and a TEDx speaker. Rebecca has been featured on CNBC, Forbes, Training Magazine, and US News and World Report. She is author of the best-selling books It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor and Make Room for Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model to Achieve Extraordinary Results.
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