Translating talent into opportunity

I recently attended the Annual Summit of the Women’s Business Collaborative, where I chair one of their action initiatives. An outstanding presentation by Thasunda Brown Ducket, CEO of TIAA, got me thinking about a quote from John F. Kennedy: “All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.”

The need to close the talent and opportunity gap is urgent

A recent New York Times article, “How Everyday Sexism Harms Women” by Jessica Nordell and Yaryna Serkez, drives home the inequalities currently at play across all professions. A few examples:

• An analysis of actual performance evaluations found that more than 75 percent of women’s evaluations contained critical comments about their personalities versus 2 percent of men’s.
• An American Bar Association Study found that 70 percent of women lawyers of color left or considered leaving the profession because of feeling undervalued.
• The more women economists co-authored papers with men, the less likely they were to receive tenure.
• A study of 500,000 physician referrals showed women surgeons received significantly fewer referrals than male surgeons after successful outcomes.

How can we better mesh talent and opportunity?

In each of our development programs at WOMEN Unlimited, Inc., we ensure manager engagement. Managers are on the front lines of change and managers play a vital role in how participants are supported back at the workplace — as they apply their learnings and their new behaviors.  

This year, in addition to our usual interaction with managers, WOMEN Unlimited conducted an extensive survey of women participants, their managers and their mentors, the detailed results of which will be published in an upcoming “IMPACT Report.” 

As part of the survey, we asked managers how they were helping support the development of their female talent. Their comments included:

• “Coach her on the need for proper boundary setting.”
• “Communicate and listen more.” 
• “One-on-one coaching.” 
• “Provide greater flexibility in work hours.”
•  “Discuss workload and alternatives.”

A promising long-term picture

I find these comments especially promising for bridging the gap between talent and opportunity. They point to an emerging understanding of the challenges and responsibilities women face, above and beyond their male colleagues. Spurred on by the realities of the pandemic, this growing manager awareness is taking hold and signals a cultural shift in successfully tapping the talents of women in the workforce.

Additionally, these attitudinal changes are a powerful start to filling a void legislation alone never can. Legislation is about addressing major grievances and flagrant prejudices. It is not about the day-to-day realities that cause talented women to advance more slowly and less frequently than their male colleagues, such as:

• A greater burden on women to balance personal and professional responsibilities.
• Expectations of “feminine” behavior in the workplace.
• Hesitancy of both managers to delegate, and women to accept, high-visibility projects.
• Unequal access for women to sponsors, mentors and other corporate influencers.
• Women’s reluctance to speak up for themselves and being labeled as “self-promoting” when they do.

These are among the often-ignored obstacles that can be overcome by understanding and empathy at all managerial levels. However, it is crucial that changes and improvements not be viewed as “one and done.” They are anything but. Chief learning officers play a critical role in supporting managers make this shift through corporate learning and long term solutions that emphasize psychological safety. As shifts in individual attitudes become shifts in corporate culture, change happens deliberately, methodically and pervasively.

There is definitely reason for optimism as we look to closing the talent/opportunity gap. As Nordell and Serkez summarize in their article: “Leaders who believe the elimination of bias is essential to the functioning of the organization are more likely to take the kind of active, aggressive and long-term steps needed to root out bias.”

 Happily, we’re seeing more of those leaders.