Leadership Development that Delivers

Ron Ashkenas has a great article on Forbes today with the title

Are you Wasting Money on Training

He cites a major corporation that did away with a very expensive and exclusive leadership development program for its top 400 when...

"...six months later none of the participants could say that their business or function was any better off as a result of the program; and few could cite anything that they were personally doing differently."

The leadership model we use at Leading Women has produced different results for our participants. While we can always do better, and are continuously improving our programs, here is my comment on Ron's article.

"Ron, great article and excellent advice. Our work developing women leaders focuses very heavily on alignment with the business and we've had results different from the example you cited:

A retroactive survey of participants in our leadership programs told us that a stunning 86% were promoted or were given more responsibility (an indirect indication of their business impact).

The most frequently reported behavioral changes include:

•     82.5% more intentionally project leadership presence.
•     76.2% think more strategically about their job/organization.
•     61% network more strategiclaly outside their organization.
•     60% lead from core strengths and gifts.
•     58.5% network more strategically within their organization.
•     56.1% are better able to elicit information and listen deeply (inquiry skills).
•     50% more proactively seek to know their organization's strategy.

We continuously work to improve these results and to track performance impacts on the business. Thanks for the inspiration to continue on our journey."

If you're looking for high-impact leadership development that delivers, we have one that's right for you. Read about them here.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn

New Wage Gap Stats for Managers...and they aren't pretty

Wage Gap Stats
 A quick post because I've never seen these stats delivered before. And I hope to never see such a wide gap again. As reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle based on Bureau of Labor Statistics. The wage tap is over 20% in 5 sectors including 29.9% in the category of management, business and financial operations.

"The 7.35 million women in the management, business and financial operations category earned a median of $961 per week during the second quarter of 2011. The 8.78 million men in the same classification drew median pay of $1,371 per week. 

Here in Rhode Island, the Vision 2020 @equalityinsight initiative is working to engage organizations on this issue. What are you doing where you are?

Social Networking = Savvy Networking?

This headline from The Republic caught my eye this morning, "Social media helps professionals break through gender barriers". Being committed to breaking through gender barriers I read the article which describes a networking "savviness formula" i.e. the gender comparison of the percentage of profiles in relation to the number of connections they have. For example in the tobacco industry women account for 70% of connections, but only 45% of profiles.

Our focus at Leading Women is to help women understand the difference between social networking and strategic networking and we know that social connections don't necessarily equate to savvy networking. Strategic networking is about using our relationships in service of a larger outcome. For example, to what business and/or career purpose do we leverage our connections?

Our research indicates that men are perceived as much more strategic networkers while women are seen as better at developing relationships. What is your experience?

By the way, according to LinkedIn's savviness index:

"The top industries where women were deemed the savvier networkers, according to LinkedIn, were tobacco, ranching, international trade and development, alternative medicine and alternative dispute resolution. As for men, they trumped women in online networking savviness in law enforcement, medical practices, capital markets, hospital/health care, and cosmetics. Across all industries, both globally and in the United States, men took the connectivity prize, according to the LinkedIn report."

To see what else we're keeping our eye on these days, check us out on Facebook.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn