LET’S ELEVATE EACH OTHER.
Who are you elevating today? Who are you mentoring and sponsoring? Who’s cheerleader will you be today?
Here is my challenge to you. Along with fostering your own career, prioritize elevating the careers of other women and minorities, because that is how we accelerate gender equality in the workplace and diversity in our leadership roles. We must work together. After all, there is so much that we can teach each other and when we lift each other up, we all win!
THE SAD REALITY
Lets talk about some startling statistics. As of 2021 women hold 31% of all senior management roles, globally. Only 31%? In 2021, Fortune magazine shared “the number of women running businesses on the Fortune 500 hit an all-time record.” As I read the article, I was shocked to discover the huge, record-breaking number … 41. Yes, 41 out of 500 CEOS are female, that’s only 8.1%. Shockingly low numbers and frankly, completely unacceptable. Other important diversity factors like culture, race, ethnicity, disability status, or sexual orientation are embarrassingly low too, “Currently, there are just four Black chief executive officers leading the largest public companies in the U.S.”
Gender and race biases have been keeping talented people away from successful careers for years. What great inventions or ideas have we missed out on because our corporations and technology leaders are lacking diversity and perspective in their teams? Just imagine all the innovation, revolutionary solutions, and progress that would happen if we had diverse voices and perspectives solving our world problems, coding our new technologies, and leading our businesses?
So you might ask, “how do we accelerate gender equality in the workplace and help more females and minorities earn leadership roles?” One of the ways we can all help is active mentorship, sponsorship, empowerment, information sharing, and storytelling that will help to inspire, promote and ELEVATE EACH OTHER. We truly have not been doing a great job in these areas. In a recent study by the Wharton School of Business: 63 percent of women reported they’ve never had a mentor! 63% is a huge miss! We have really been letting each other down.
STRONG ALONE, UNSTOPPABLE TOGETHER
I propose we fiercely adopt Nike’s and the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team’s “Strong Alone, Unstoppable Together” motto from their 2019 commercial, and take it beyond the soccer field. Coming together, united, supporting, mentoring, sponsoring, and uplifting each other in our everyday, personal, and professional lives! Men have been doing this for years in their private clubs, happy hours, steakhouse dinners and golf games, often disguising their business sponsorship and dealmaking in these elite environments. Men network regularly, help each other out, mentor, and sponsor each other, often starting from a young age. So, let’s take a play from the gentleman’s playbook, let’s hack this system and elevate each other. We can do that too!
That’s the mission, pulling together to share insights, mentor, sponsor, and help ELEVATE EACH OTHER to our full potential.
Read some of our recent blog posts:
- Achieving the Impossible. Olympians are the Ultimate Rebels.
Olympians are the ultimate rebels. Here are a few of my favorites. - Time to Think About What We Say, Because Words Matter!
Words have power and they matter. The words we use can either include or exclude. - Navigating New Connections and Networking
Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso, to help navigate the stress of networking and making new connections. - Exemplary Leadership
To be an exemplary leader, one must elevate others. Are you a boss or a leader? - Career Advice I Would Tell My 25-Year-Old Self
Top ten pieces of career wisdom that I would give my 25-year-old self if I could go back in time and have a chat. - Altering My Outlook On Failure
Rethink and revise your outlook on failure and other keen insights and learnings from Sara Blakely.
Some curated Career Tips and Inspiration for you.
Read our origin story.