14 Strategies to Increase Gender Diversity in Leadership

14 Effective Ways to Ensure More Women Land in Leadership Roles

Expert Panel, Forbes Coaches Council, Forbes.com, Januarry 14, 2021.

Insight: This article offers some practical and powerful suggestions from 14 experts on ways to support getting more women into leadership positions. My favorite advice comes from Edyta Pacuk, who encourages employers to “know the value of your female leaders and understand your own limiting beliefs and biases that can stand in the way of you being objective.”

I’m admittedly discouraged at how often strategies offered to advance women focus on how women need to change or be “different” in some way. Edyta Pacuk’s suggestion focuses on the role that indivdiual biases play in organizations and places the conversation back in the realm of each manager and leader asking “What can I do?”

This, in turn, encourages those in leadership to reflect on and own their biases and behaviors. When managers are willing to explore how they may be communicating their biases—intentionally or unitentionally—they begin to acknowledge the cumulative impact that has on women’s ability to advance in their organization. Then, leaders need to be willing to do the difficult work of intentionally changing their actions to align with their claims of desiring a diverse leadership team.