You’ve seen the headlines: “Companies with Women in Leadership Equal Stronger Profits.” “Investing in Women Is Smart for Business.” “Increased Diversity Equals Increased Profitability.”
We have begun to acknowledge the important role of women in business, but how do we turn words and research into results? Like raising kids, there isn’t one answer … nor a quick solution. To start, we need to build and strengthen our pipeline of women ready to fill leadership positions. There is no “Go straight to CEO” card. We need to provide women with more opportunities. Not free passes, but look at our practices. Two companies recently in the news that are doing just that: Airbnb, which is purposefully trying to increase the number of women working for them (and is seeing success) by having women present during the hiring interview process; and Bad Robot Productions, where owner J.J. Abrams is requiring all projects to, at minimum, mimic the ratio of gender and racial diversity of the country.
There’s another piece to this puzzle—one that we can personally take ownership of.