Engaging Men Matters – Let’s Start Having the Smart Conversation!

Recently I was asked to conduct a Fireside Chat with two male senior executives of a Fortune 500 company. These Fireside Chats are designed to bring men into the Integrated Leadership conversation and explore how men and women can work in partnership to break down barriers, address gender-related stereotypes and help each other realize their roles in closing the gender gap.

The forum drew the organization’s 200 top women leaders, as well as a critical mass of male executives. With the purpose of engaging these two men in a dialogue about inclusion and diversity and why both are important, I took a deep breath and began to ask them questions. The conversation was amazing! These two men shared their perspectives about why it’s important for women to be in the leadership ranks at all levels of the organization and how having them there actually impacts bottom-line growth.

Moving From Conversation to Action

Are you just giving "lip service" to the issue of women's advancement?

There has been a great deal of debate recently about Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In (Knopf). Kudos to Sheryl for re-igniting the conversation about the shortage of women in senior leadership and for drawing national attention to this incredibly important topic. Now that we have debated the whos, the whys and the hows, it’s time to move forward. It’s time to move from conversation to action – to stop talking about advancing more women into senior leadership and start doing something about it.

Sponsorship Matters – What Organizations Can Do

Not a week goes by that SHAMBAUGH doesn’t get a call from an organization looking for help to better prepare its leaders to advance into more senior positions. One of the most common challenges facing these organizations is identifying and advancing talented women leaders. My last two blogs discussed the importance of sponsorship in advancing more women through the leadership pipeline to create balanced, integrated leadership teams that drive better business results. And while individual men and women leaders are on the front lines when it comes to sponsorship, the importance of the organization and senior leadership can’t be underestimated.

Sponsorship Matters – How Men Can Help

In Part I of “Sponsorship Matters,” we discussed the importance of sponsorship in building balanced, integrated leadership teams that leverage the strengths of both men and women. Specifically, I addressed what women need to do to gain more sponsorship. However, we need to realize that we aren’t going to make sustainable progress if we only rely on women to change the status quo. So this month, we will look at the role men play in sponsoring women leaders.

Interestingly, men typically are not seen as playing a significant role in advancing women into leadership – that job has been left to the HR or OD department. And because men have often been pushed to the sidelines, they have perhaps become apathetic about supporting women. Yet men are in the best position to sponsor and mentor women because many have spent a significant amount of time in the leadership ranks and hold the most knowledge and experience.

Men’s Role in Integrated Leadership

We’ve been talking about gender (and cultural) diversity for years now. And yet, despite the fact that 50 percent of the workforce is comprised of women and that women are now graduating with twice as many degrees as men, women make up only 14 percent of senior executive roles. So what is going on here? Why are more women not advancing to the senior leadership ranks?

I realize that I run the risk of being politically incorrect when I say this, but I think men play a significant role in this situation. Quite frankly, how could they not? The vast majority of senior and executive leaders are men. Given their sheer numbers, one must logically conclude that men have some kind of impact or influence on the lack of women in leadership…but not in the way that you might think.

What Can You Learn from Steve Jobs?

In every conference and meeting I’ve attended this past week, the discussion has turned to the loss of one of our most admired thought leaders, Steve Jobs. Without question one of the most innovative leaders of our time, he changed the way people connect with one another and how we experience digital content. His holistic view redefined the personal computing, music, animation, cell phone and mobile computing industries, to name just a few. Many say Steve Jobs’ legacy will be “the blending of technology and poetry.”

Who Are You? From the Words of a King

I recently saw the Oscar-nominated movie The King’s Speech and thought it had such a captivating story that I went to see it a second time. One of the remarkable things about this movie is how it speaks to a central message for all aspiring leaders. It is essentially about bridging the gap between who you think you are and who you want to be.