The Fortune500 consumer packaged goods company wanted to launch its own women's leadership program. The company was dedicated to equality of opportunity but had a comparatively low number of women in senior leadership positions. Management faced increasing scrutiny about its commitment to gender equality. Seeing a potential crisis on the horizon, management made investment in women leadership a key priority.
Affirmative action was a contentious issue. A strong company culture had been created by attracting driven international talent. Outperformance counted as baseline performance. Strong performers had high loyalty to the business and could expect fast career progression. Stakeholders across the company were alive to anything that presented as unfair advantage. Consequently, the overarching objective for the women's leadership program was to equip senior women leaders to navigate any biases that came up and to elevate leadership capabilities that added value to the entire organization.
Having conducted a behavioral capabilities audit and user-led content survey, our women's leadership program framework was customized to target specific capabilities and content areas. Among them, managing misperceptions of being overly emotional and activating inspirational leadership with remote teams. Monthly roundtables created forums for women leaders to exchange best practices on key topics. Small group coaching provided a safe space for leaders to test and advance their soft skill sets. 1:1 executive coaching used data-driven insights and a human-centred methodology to deliver step change for leaders against capability gaps, performance targets, and career development opportunities.
One-to-one introductions by program coordinators accelerated the number and depth of connections made during the program. The program capstone included keynotes from the CEO and inspirational speakers, and celebrated leaders' individual achievements with manager recognition videos. Participants from the yearly programs all joined the alumni community, which hosted its own program of networking and executive development events.
The alumni community provided leaders with enduring relationships. Task forces and Lean In Circles spun out of the community to address organizational opportunities, including parental leave and improvement to consumer centricity through empathetic leadership. Aggregated and anonymized program insights informed engagement and retention policies. Upon completion of its third consecutive year, the program had been taken by all senior women leaders and the company decided to refocus its efforts on ESG more broadly.
The program received an average Net Promoter Score of 9.4 from participants across the 3 years.
The multi-year program ran for 3 years.
24% of participants were promoted through the program.
I was inspired by the deep self-awareness, the coaching and networking, and most of all by the supportive community of women this program established.
The executive coaching was conducted at a caliber of quality and professionalism beyond expectations or anything I have participated in previously. The detailed reference back to assessments made recommendations and activities very personalized. So valuable and appreciated!
VICE PRESIDENT, PROGRAM PARTICIPANT
SENIOR DIRECTOR, PROGRAM PARTICIPANT
