A note for HR and Talent teams.
Somewhere in your organisation there is a mother in a senior role who wants to make a bigger contribution; a mother who is capable of delivering in a more substantial role but who may not be on a succession plan. An overlooked woman – or group of women – who if promoted into positions of greater responsibility (with accompanying greater salaries) would be a step towards closing your gender pay gap, improving your gender pay gap reporting, and meeting goals you have around X percentage of leadership roles held by women by Y date.
These women may not be on your radar because they haven’t loudly or explicitly signalled a desire to be promoted. Perhaps one of those women is you? (Last week I worked with two such women: one in media, the other in an asset management firm).
I expect a couple of women spring to mind now that I’ve mentioned this. Women who if forwarded this e-mail with a note from you simply saying: Would you like to go to this? We’ll sponsor your place would be delighted to have been thought of.
70 women have pre-registered their interest in being part of Raising & Rising – a women’s leadership retreat and one day leadership career retreat for mothers in senior roles – with me and my colleague Anita Cleare. We asked them: Confidentially, what’s getting in the way of you taking a bigger step up at work?
Only 8.6% said the responsibilities of the next step up don’t appeal. The stand-out barrier by a mile was I fear the next job up wouldn’t leave me capacity to deal with unexpected things at home (44%) followed by I don’t think I could be the parent I want to be if I went beyond my current level (40%).
These two barriers are over-reach for employers to address, which is why I am getting in touch. Last year you registered for a session titled “What’s stopping women stepping up (that HR probably doesn’t know about)” with me and Anita.
This tells me you want to see women rise in your organisation, improve female representation in leadership, and support your female talent pipeline – and you haven’t yet found the right solutions.
One participant wrote to me and Anita after Raising & Rising in February: “It provided a clear, credible space to work on areas of my development that I don’t think could have been done in-house.”
When we asked the first cohort of mothers at our first Raising & Rising to give us feedback we asked for them to do it anonymously so they were free to be honest and critique any part of it. They gave it a +95 Net Promoter Score which blew us away.
That impressive endorsement is probably because we tailored the day – and the follow-on sessions – to the exact needs of the eight participants. They got exactly what they needed to help them perform at their best, position themselves for promotion, take their place in succession planning for women, and make things easier at home – all of which supports talent retention for women and stronger employee retention more broadly.
And that’s what we’ll do at the next Raising & Rising on Monday 12th October in central London with another group of up to 12 smart, motivated mothers who want to rise in your organisation but can’t yet see how. Whether you’re supporting working mothers returning to leadership or senior women returners already back at their desks, this executive coaching for women is designed to meet them where they are.
The Super Early Bird offer has been and gone but you can still get 10% off places until Friday 17th July. The £1755 + VAT investment covers a full day with Anita and me plus two follow-on remote sessions for further support and accountability – corporate sponsorship for women’s development that pays back in retention and promotion readiness.
All the details – including a short video with the experiences of the women who came to the first Raising & Rising from ITV, BNP Paribas, Stantec and more – are here.
If you have any questions about Raising & Rising or want to ask me about anything else I have raised here just drop me a note here.
