How Men Can Be More Inclusive Leaders

Preference of millennial employees for collaboration, transparency, healthy work-life integration, celebration of diversity and inclusion, and purpose-driven employment demands a new kind of leadership.

Since 1981, women have secured more college degrees than their male counterparts. Women constitute a rich trove of skills, abilities, and competence. Failing to attract and leverage female talent is a huge missed opportunity.

Male leaders — and men more broadly — are increasingly expected to pursue gender inclusion and equity through deliberate allyship with women. Allyship includes collaborative personal relationships, public acts of sponsorship, and advocacy intended to drive systemic improvements in workplace culture.

• Have the humility to know that there’s much you don’t know about others’ experiences. 
• Have the courage to ask difficult questions about your own leadership style.
• How are you truly supporting women at work and in your life overall? 
• Ask about the experiences of women in your workplace; ask if they feel fully included, valued, and respected; and be willing to hear answers you might not like.

• Messages about equity must be personal and authentic.
• Explain why this is important to you personally, and then connect this personal story to how gender diversity and inclusion are important to your business.
• Case Study: Blake Irving, former CEO of GoDaddy, made it his personal mission to change the company’s notoriously sexist brand and was clear he was motivated by the untimely death of his sister to commit to creating a truly inclusive workplace.

• Being visible also requires you to show up at events, conferences, and other initiatives promoting gender inclusion and equality. This encourages other men to follow your example. 
• When leaders fully participate, they demonstrate support, develop empathy, diversify their networks, and identify high-potential talent. 
• Brian Olsavsky, CFO at Amazon insistence for male employees to participate in LeanIn events. 

Leaders willing to publicly disclose their policies and practices on gender, race, and sexual orientation inclusion will be the companies that succeed by attracting and retaining the best and the brightest employees and reducing risk to shareholders

Burning Issues

• gender pay gap,
• provide paid parental leave to both parents
• to recruit without discrimination

• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s passion and commitment for advancing pay equity resulted in a complete overhaul of their compensation system leading the company to close the gender pay gap
• Starbucks recently announced it is tying executive compensation to diversity metrics 
• A growing multitude of companies are committing to ensuring they have at least one woman on their boards

• In 2017, former Hewlett Packard CMO, Antonio Lucio fundamentally changed the advertising industry when he demanded more gender diversity amongst his ad agencies. 
• Today, companies like Facebook, SurveyMonkey, and Amazon are insisting on diversity from their suppliers.