There’s a moral case for your company to give equal opportunities for your team regardless of their backgrounds, their gender or their sexual orientation. There’s also an business-performance one in terms of the improved decision-making that results from cognitive diversity.
And although we are without a doubt making progress, it can feel slow.
Recruiting women into senior roles is needed. But we need to go much deeper to solve this at a systemic level.
For me, one of the key actions is for us to grow paths for women from when they are young right through into junior, mid then senior roles in business. It sounds obvious, but rather than just recruiting at a senior level, companies needs to have more opportunities for women to rise through the ranks so they grow their own talent, and it becomes, as it should be, simply normal rather than requiring looking outside.
My guest as we launch Series 3 of the Karmic Capitalist podcast is Charly Young MBE.
Charly set up the Girl’s Network because she saw how many talented girls were not seeing or given opportunities because of what she terms the “double disadvantage” of being girls and coming from less privileged backgrounds. The Girl’s Network matches those girls with women mentors and organisations to give them support, guidance and critically, role models to grow their self-belief and open up their opportunities.
Charly’s an engaging and passionate speaker and advocate, and it is insightful to see the entrepreneurial way she started the organisation (think MVP), the trajectory it’s been on, the impact it’s making and the opportunities to work with them.
(Disclosure – I loved this so much, I’ve been asking many of the super-talented and successful women I know if they’d get involved. The first one, a CEO of a consultancy I work with, has just completed training, and her mentee will be in for a real treat!)
Enjoy
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