The CEO Roundtable Series – “Gender Equity & Leadership” took place on February 16th. This special panel of executives discussed the importance of leading with a gendered lens, and how to incorporate gender equity practices into our workplaces.

Featured speakers included Aileen Alexander, Chief Executive Officer, Diversified Search Group; Maria Colacurcio, Chief Executive Officer, Syndio Solutions and Dan Hesse, Chairman, Akamai Technologies / Board Member, PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. The session was moderated by Robert Reiss, Chief Executive Officer, The CEO Forum Group and Rebecca Shambaugh, President, SHAMBAUGH Leadership. Special commentary provided by Johanna Zeilstra, Chief Executive Officer, Gender Fair.

Click below to watch the recording!

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In this session, Gwen Young, COO of WBC, met with our newest host, Linda Peek Schacht, on January 13th at 12pm EST Gwen introduced Linda as she joins the LinkedIn Live series to host two sessions per month. In addition, Gwen and Linda gave an overview of what to expect for this series over the next year, and how each of the themes and issues covered fit into WBC’s overall mission of equal pay, position, and power for all businesswomen.

Watch the recording on Linkedin here, or below!

The post #WBCFasterTogether: Leading the Trends in 2022 appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

In this issue of The CEO Forum Magazine, each of the articles and interviews focuses on trends in leadership relating to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). Check out the full issue here, featuring interviews from WBC CEO Edie Fraser, and past WBC CEO Awardees Mary Barra and David Taylor!

The post The CEO Forum Magazine – “The Leadership Issue: Driving ESG” (December 2021) appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

This piece was published in Forbes Online on December 31st, 2021

As we are ready to usher in 2022, I am reminded a decade ago, back in 2012, when I wrote in my Forbes column that we needed to get to 50 Fortune 500 women CEOs. Today, as the movement is gaining momentum, I’ve been thinking about once we achieve that goal, how we can free corporations to lead the charge for a better society … a society where innovation thrives through diversity, where all doors are open for everyone to bring their full self to work, where the first response is true listening, open-mindedness and potential for collaboration. We now are entering, I believe, an epoch where enterprises can be the model citizens who usher in what I believe can become the ‘Age of Possibilities’.

In an effort to create dialogue, on November 30, 2021 I co-moderated for Women Business Collaborative a CEO roundtable with three thought leaders:

·      Mary T. McDowell, Chair, Board of Directors, Mitel

·      Andrew Anagnost, President, CEO & Board Director, Autodesk

·      Jodie W. McLean, Chief Executive Officer, EDENS

Jodie McLean shared her advice to women, “Women are more reluctant than men to say yes to a work assignment. Even though men are 65% ready to take the risk, they often accept the opportunity, whereas women won’t, even if they are 99% ready. My advice is to take the shot! You may not make the goal, but you will never know for sure if you don’t say yes. Finding the right partners at work and in life—and with whom you can be open and transparent about your ambitions and what you want to accomplish and rely on their support as well as their honest feedback—will also set you on the path to success.”

McLean then shared her vision for workforce diversity, “Importantly, I envision a workforce of people who are comfortable bringing their whole selves, because this is where innovation really starts. In the spring of 2020, riots and street protests were having an impact on many of our properties, just as our retail partners were re-opening and learning to navigate COVID-related restrictions. Our people need safe places to have really hard discussions as to the “why” and “how.” After we conducted small group discussions for our staff around diversity and inclusion, more employees developed confidence in these moments of uncomfortableness, and as an unexpected bonus, we started to hear much more empowered voices at work. People were asking questions and coming forth with ideas where they might not have been empowered to share prior.”

Andrew Anagnost brought in the idea that the key is change is incorporating one process that opens the door to a new flow of positive outcomes — creating a more structured decision-making process. This starts with bringing more voices to the table and allowing for true collaboration.

He also suggested that to bring gender parity we start with more diverse recruiting panels. And he shared the important role of the board, which is to keep management accountable; and clarified that boards should, “stick your nose in but not your fingers”.

Anagnost then gave a message about the future highlighting that we need to look forward because the most innovative companies – and, in fact societies — are built on integration of diverse perspectives, where 10 years out anyone can be what they want to be without stereotypes.

Mary McDowell summed up what the first step in an age of possibilities might look like, as we usher in the New Year by creating workplaces of equality, “My hope for 2022 is that we move from putting the burden of gender equity in the workplace solely on the individual and acknowledge the critical role of corporate and public policies. So often, especially in the United States, we counsel a woman to “speak up” and “lean in” or that she can “have it all” if she just puts her mind to it. And while individual drive and accountability are certainly part of the equation, the number of talented, driven women that have dialed back their careers or left the workforce entirely during the pandemic make it glaringly obvious that it’s not enough.

Companies must support and develop female leaders in ways as simple as fostering networking groups or investing in targeted training for women and as meaningful as reevaluating their family leave and vacation policies. And at the macro level, public policy needs to support the real needs of working parents if we are ever to achieve true gender equity in the workplace.”

In summary, I believe the world of the next 100 years to a great degree depends on what we do over the next 10 years. Organizations have the structure, the resources and the potential to lead the world forward. That starts with removing biases and listening to all with a mindset of true inclusion and complete diversity, which sets forward great innovation and collaboration. This will elevate corporations to become companies of purpose, and open the door to what I believe can be a true “Age of Possibilities”.

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Nonprofit Collaborative Grows Participation by More than 200% Since its Founding; Remains Committed to Accelerating Progress Across Nine Key Action Initiatives

Published via PR Newswire and Yahoo Finance on December 14th, 2021

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Women Business Collaborative (WBC) has established itself as the leading collaborative and high-growth movement committed to achieving equal position, pay and power for all women in business. Founded in 2019, the nonprofit alliance of business organizations and leaders has grown to include more than 60+ women’s organizations, 40 corporate sponsors and 400+ Council Champions.

WBC’s vast network of business organizations and leaders are focused on achieving long-term results around Nine Action Initiatives, including: more women CEOs, in the C-Suite and on Boards; a demand for gender and pay parity; increasing capital for women entrepreneurs; driving more women as controllers of capital allocation; parity for women in technology; and leveraging learning and development to drive pipeline promotions. With diversity, equity and inclusion at of the core of the collaborative’s mission, every WBC Initiative has a goal to advance diversity.

Since WBC’s founding, the number of collaborating women’s business organizations has grown from 19 to 62 and corporate sponsorship has grown from five to nearly 40 top companies. Supporters include Diversified Search Group, Wells Fargo, Capital One, IBM, Bank of America, BCG, Cigna, and Deloitte. WBC’s flagship Summit hosted a record 3,600 participants this past September.

“We’re incredibly thankful for the passion and commitment that each of our partners and champions offer to this critical movement,” said Edie Fraser, CEO of WBC. “While Boards have seen a sea change and there’s been a major surge of women-owned and minority-owned businesses seeking capital, there is still much more to be done to accelerate gender parity for women. We project further acceleration in 2022.”

In 2021 the WBC with Catalyst, C200 and Ascend released the 2^nd annual Women CEOs in America Report.   According to the report, women comprise 8.2% of the Fortune 500 companies and are about 7% of CEOs across public and private companies. WBC monthly Women Joining Public Boards report shows an average of 42% women being named to public boards and one third of these women of color.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WBCollaborative, Instagram @womenbusinesscollaborative and join the discussion with #WBCFasterTogether.

The post WBC Reports Major 2021 Progress Toward Gender Parity for Business Women appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Gwen Young, WBC COO, and Edie Fraser, WBC CEO, hosted the final #WBCFasterTogether session of 2021 on December 16th, 2021! Gwen and Edie summarized the progress and achievements of the WBC from the past year, while previewing what’s to come in 2022 for the women’s business movement.

Watch the recording on LinkedIn or below on Youtube!

The post WBCFasterTogether Series: Building the Movement – 2021 and Beyond appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

When Carly Fiorina became the first female chief executive officer of a Fortune-20 company in 1999, many viewed the Hewlett-Packard CEO’s rise through the ranks as a positive sign that female executives would continue breaking glass ceilings and occupy top seats in corporations.

While progress has been made, it hasn’t come fast enough for some.

As a crowd gathered at the National Press Club to celebrate the findings of a new study on women CEOs and where they stand in the C-suite, the numbers showed incremental growth but were surprisingly low.

The comprehensive report “Women CEOs in America 2021,” presented by the Women Business Collaborative, showed that 8.2% Fortune 500 CEOs are women compared to 6.6% two years ago. In a world where new studies show men are being left behind in educational systems, men are still currently leagues ahead in the boardroom. Women make up more than 50% college-educated workforce, yet they only make up a fraction of CEOs. Why aren’t there more women CEOs? Observers say it’s not a simple answer and it depends on who you ask.

The founder of the organization behind the report, Edie Fraser, believes companies need to build up women’s experiences, especially in the boardroom, to increase the number of women in the pipeline for the role of CEO.

Fraser specifically calls on male CEOs. “We all focus on male CEOs standing up to take action and be advocates,” she said, referring to women in the workforce. Fraser said they want to highlight male CEOs and measure if they are really “taking action to move the needle aggressively” toward more women CEOs.

Lorraine Hariton, CEO of Catalyst, said companies need to build up the pipeline of women they already have. There is a “robust pipeline of women who are capable of doing the jobs,” she said, “but they need to be sponsored into the line jobs so that then the opportunities come up, and they’re the ones that are chosen.” Hariton said “there needs to be a lot more intentionality” when building the pipeline of women who can fulfill the CEO role.

Companies are already beginning to achieve this by having women lead more nominating committees and placing them in positions where they can advocate for women to be CEO. There has been an increase in the number of women who sit as board chairs and as chairs of audit committees as a result.

The organization believes each of these points are the catalysts of change that will propel more women into CEO positions.

Despite the progress, Hariton said the pace of change is still too slow. “We need to make progress happen at a much quicker pace. [WBC] have set a goal for the Fortune 500 to be at 15% [women] by 2025 and right now we are only on track for 10% — that’s not good enough,” says Hariton.

Along with talk of how to build the pipeline of women CEOs, the summit was filled with the celebration of women leaders and excitement for the future.

They recognized the six more women who joined the ranks of Fortune 500 CEOs: Karen Lynch of CVS Health, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Patricia Poppe of PG&E, Lauren Hobard of Dicks Sporting Goods, Rosalind (Roz) Brewer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Thasunda Brown Duckett of TIAA. They expressed excitement for the future of women in executive roles.

Many pointed to COVID as a catalyst for change. Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Resources, believes the flexibility of working from home gives women the opportunity to do work on a more “fragmented” schedule. This allows them to balance the additional responsibilities that she says many women face at home.

Johnson said working from home is “not going away,” hinting that this is a shift in the opportunity for women to have the flexibility to take on more responsibility at work, including in roles that lead to the CEO.

Because of the pandemic, working remotely has “evened” the playing field, she said. “If there has been an advantage to men congregating together on the executive floor and talking about those topics, we sort of all got spread out and had to build those connections in a different way.”

All of these arguments point to an increase in the pipeline of women for the CEO position. But will a better pipeline of women in leadership actually increase the number of women in CEO positions?

There seems to be no lack of effort by American companies to promote diversity in the workforce. In fact, all Fortune 500 companies have diversity programs centered around women to give them additional visibility opportunities that their male counterparts don’t receive. Microsoft hosts women-only networking events for senior-level professional women and Biogen uses its “Women’s Innovation Network” to create networking, mentoring, and learning opportunities for women to “further drive increased representation of women in senior leadership positions.”

Some ask if there are other reasons beyond the lack of pipeline that are leading to fewer women in CEO positions.

Others say that may be the wrong question. Psychologist Jordan Peterson turns the argument around saying, “Why aren’t there more women in positions of power? Wrong question. The right question is, why are there any men at all who want those positions of power?”

In a study done by the Harvard Business School, men and women believe they are equally able to advance professionally and attain high-level leadership positions, but men want power more than women do. Women were also more likely to believe that power has more negative outcomes, like conflict and trade-offs, than men.

The study, conducted by three women, shows men and women view the consequences of professional advancement and positions of power differently and therefore shape their career progression around those assumptions.

Unsurprisingly, women were more likely to have more life goals compared to men but had significantly fewer goals that were related to power.

Despite this, the Women Business Collaborative argues that companies should strive to have more women CEOs because diversity in leadership is critical to the success of companies.

Margery Kraus, CEO of Apco Worldwide, agrees. “Now there is a lot of proof in a lot of studies that having diversity and having women in leadership is important. I think what the pandemic has proven is that empathetic leadership — which is normally associated with women [and] being empathetic seen as a weakness — [is] such a strength and that is helping people understand the value of women in leadership positions.”

This proposition that women lead with more empathy is reinforced by a 2021 study conducted by McKinsey in partnership with LeanIn.Org. The study noted that compared to male managers, women in leadership positions were 29% more likely to help their employees navigate work and life challenges, 42% more likely to ensure a manageable workload, and 21% more likely to help prevent or manage burnout.

It is evident that executive teams with 30% women are more likely to outperform those with fewer or no women. What is not clear is that it is due to more feminine traits, like empathy.

It could even be due to the fact that empathy isn’t a trait that companies value. A study titled, “Does Empathy Pay? Evidence on Empathy and Salaries of Recent College Graduates,” suggests that people who are more empathetic don’t get the job because “they are considered to be too accommodating,” which is not necessarily a trait companies are looking for in their next CEO. They tend to be more focused on traits including vision, organization and risk-taking abilities.

It is noteworthy that empathy can lead to more retention, engagement and innovation, which can lead to a more productive workforce, according to a survey of 889 employees across industries. The survey was conducted by Catalyst, one of the partner organizations for the Women Business Collaborative that compiled the Women CEOs in America Report.

While Carly Fiorina and other women have led the way in modern corporate leadership, the Women Business Collaborative and other similar groups will keep pushing on those glass ceilings.

The post FORBES: Why Aren’t More CEOs Women? appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

This session of the CEO Roundtable Series – “Gender Equity & Leadership” took place on November 30th at 12pm EST. This special panel of executives discussed the importance of leading with a gendered lens, and how to incorporate gender equity practices into our workplaces.

Featured speakers included Andrew Anagnost, President, CEO & Board Director, Autodesk; Mary T. McDowell, Chair, Board of Directors, Mitel and Jodie W. McLean, Chief Executive Officer, EDENS. The session will be moderated by Robert Reiss, Chief Executive Officer, The CEO Forum Group and Rebecca Shambaugh, President, SHAMBAUGH Leadership. Johanna Zeilstra, Chief Executive Officer, Gender Fair, provided special commentary.

Missed the live event? Watch the recording, here!

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This article was originally published for Forbes on October 29th, 2021 at 10:11am.

In March 2014 I wrote an article for Leader to Leader magazine stating we were entering 4^th phase of the corporation. Phase 1 was in the 1920s when Alfred Sloan with General Motors gave birth to the concept on the modern corporation; phase 2 was in the 1950s when Peter Drucker codified the principles of management; phase 3 was in the 1980s when original Japanese best practices of quality and team became ubiquitous; and now, we are firmly in phase 4 where the concept of a great company is built around one word … purpose.

To explore this phase of purpose, on October 27, 2021 I co-moderated, for Women Business Collaborative, a special CEO roundtable where we interviewed legacy CEOs – most who were at the helm in 2014 — to talk freely about the past, their present and action steps for the future. They were leaders in telecommunications, executive search, consumer products and real estate:

–       Ralph de la Vega, former Vice Chairman, AT&T

–       Judith M. von Seldeneck, Founder and Chair, Diversified Search Group

–       Doug Conant, former CEO Campbell Soup Company

–       Walt Rakowich, former CEO, Prologis

Ralph de la Vega, a long tenured leader at AT&T, deeply understands progress as he was instrumental in working with Steve Jobs to introduce the original iPhone. He kicked off the meeting with a story of how he learned about the power of diversity, “I placed a 22 year old young lady to head the youth segment in one of our countries. She completely changed the way our wireless products were distributed and packaged. When she presented her marketing plan to me I told her that I did not like it. She said “Sir, you are not the target audience”. Her comments hit me like a lightning bolt. She was right. I funded the marketing program and we achieved success levels that we could not have imagined. The moral of the story is that you must be uncomfortable to achieve the unimaginable.”

Ralph then summed up his philosophy, “Diversity and inclusion is not about counting heads, it’s about making heads count.”

Judee von Seldeneck changed the world of search by founding Diversified Search which was the world’s first organization committed to diversity in executive searches – literally decades before others; this is of critical importance as search is the true harbinger of future selection of CEOs. She shared, “Actions speak louder than words. You have to get compensation right around diversity and inclusion as we know there have been and are disparities. That is a very important part of culture. There are so many inequities that have been allowed to go on for so long, and that sends a message to the organization. Pay equity validates your culture. Senior management needs to look at compensation and benefits-things that effect quality of life. The pendulum has swing back in favor of employees.”

Judee concluded with a thought for the future, “Purpose, quality of life and flexibility are the bywords in this changing world we live in. Employers and C-suite leaders who understand this and deliver on that are the ones who will thrive today and tomorrow.”

Doug Conant left a legacy at Campbell Soup Company by turning around what was a hard hit brand into reclaiming its eminence as an iconic leader by building a new model of employee engagement. He also selected the first woman CEO in over 140 years to be his replacement.  Doug talked about the four attributes for leaders (4 C’s): Character, Competence, Chemistry and Courage. He believes the soft stuff is the hard stuff and that leaders need to be tough minded on standards but tender hearted on people.

Doug shared the key to any turnaround, “It is a fool’s errand to expect employees to care about the agenda of a company, if the company doesn’t demonstrate that it clearly cares about the agenda of every employee. You simply must win in the workplace before you can ever expect to win in the marketplace in an enduring way.” He then gave key advise on leadership, “It is an unavoidable truth that if you aspire to lead a company of diverse individuals to a high performance level, you simply must assemble a diverse cadre of leaders to inspire and orchestrate that performance.”

Walt Rakowich was CEO of Prologis, the world’s largest owner of industrial warehouses. He shared his thoughts on diversity, “I think the most important ingredient to success in terms of workforce diversity is having a CEO and a management team that are committed to it… Tone at the top is critical. It’s not just what management says, it’s what they do that counts… Do they hold themselves accountable?”

We then asked about his role today as a board member vs. a CEO and Walt explained, “I see a lot more progress. I sit on three boards with total market capitalization of close to 100 billion dollars, so they’re fairly large companies. Thirty-two percent of my fellow board members on those companies are women; 37% of the senior management team in those companies are women; and one out of the three CEOs in those companies is a woman… There’s a lot more to do, no question about it. But I think today, we’re better aligned with our stakeholders and our customers, and I think we’re stronger companies as a result of it.”

Edie Fraser, CEO of Women Business Collaborative (WBC), pulled together the important concepts of the event with the inspirational message, “WBC and all of us are at the threshold of a revolution of companies of purpose: Fortune, private companies, investment firms, B Corps and with it, CEOs and their boards, the new role of Chief Purpose Officers. We look to CEOs who are Legacy CEOs including those on this Roundtable, to those WBC honored at our Summit, to change leaders who put purpose as the road to profits, to people first, to women and diversity that drives purpose and profits. Purpose sets strong messages and galvanizes with action to equate purposeful companies with purposeful leaders as the best places for results and impact.”

To watch CEO interviews like these go to: The CEO Forum Group

The post Legacy CEOs Agree: Purpose Is The Foundation For Great Companies Today And Tomorrow appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

This article was published for Associations Now on October 24th, 2021. View the original post, here.

A new report spotlights the progress women CEOs have made, as well as what stands in their way. Improving matters requires attention to the board, leadership pipeline, and outside stakeholders.

The environment for women CEOs is improving. According to a report released last week by the Women’s Business Collaborative (WBC) titled Women CEOs in America, more women occupy the corner office in corporate America than ever. In 1999, only two women led Fortune 500 companies; today there are 41. And 42 percent of new appointments to board this year are women.

While the improvement is unmistakable, it hasn’t been exactly rapid, or as thorough as it could be. But Edie Fraser, CEO of WBC, sees the upticks as evidence of a growing culture change where both the public and leaders within organizations are making demands for more equity in the leadership ranks. “We’re seeing more pressure from shareholders to really get a change in leadership for women, and particularly for women of color,” she said.

We’re seeing more pressure from shareholders to really get a change in leadership for women.

For associations looking to improve representation of women in the C-suite and on boards, the report points to a number of challenges that organizations need to address. Fraser spoke on some of the key ones raised by the report.

Build a better pipeline. Many candidates for top positions leave well before they have a chance to even put in for those roles. Part of that has to do with compensation bias that nudges women leaders out the door, which in turn cascades into other divisions. “There’s more pay equity when people start, in first-time jobs,” she said. “But men tend to be much more aggressive and supported in advancement, not just in terms of skills, but also mentorship, sponsorship, and succession planning.”

Cultivate the skill sets women CEOs need. The report highlights one striking statistic: “More than 90 percent of CEOs have had significant P&L [profit and loss] responsibility prior to taking the CEO role.” For more women to enter the executive suite, more experience on finances is necessary. “Women are 27 percent of the corporate executive suite,” Fraser said. “But when you peel away at the numbers, only 5 percent are running P&L. In order to really move up to the CEO job, they’ve really got to understand running and managing budgets.”

The culture of your organization matters. For organizations that want to attract and develop more women leaders, being seen as a leader in diversity matters. Fraser said that requires paying attention to the kinds of policies that support that diversity. Pandemic-era work-at-home policies are part of that. “Successful companies that want to be the beacons for recruiting and retention, they have to show that they’re really driving change and pivoting,” she said. “Those that came out and said, ‘You have to be in the office five days a week’ are losing massive talent.” The WBC report points to a 2021 Crunchbase report that found that companies with policies that emphasize gender diversity experience higher job satisfaction and retention, among other benefits.

Boards can lead the way. According to the WBC report, nearly half of private companies in the United States don’t have a single female board member, despite findings that more diverse boards have experienced better revenue growth. The report recommends more intentionality from boards to be inclusive, and Fraser is optimistic that more organizations will do so. “There’s a sea change in boards of directors now,” she said. “We’ve seen a doubling of women on corporate boards—54 percent of the General Motors board is women. You’ll see changes not just on boards but in their power to persuade nominating committees to look at top women for CEO roles.”

The post Associations Now: FOUR KEYS FOR SUPPORTING MORE WOMEN CEOS appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.