The vast majority of senior leaders understand the benefits of diversity but it's the 'how' that they struggle with
In Australia, just 29.7% of women hold key management positions in a workforce where women represent 46.9% of all people employed, according to the latest results from Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
How can organisations go about closing this gap?
Mercer and Dr Jess Murphy, creator of leadership and talent development experience - Pathway to Your Potential (P2YP), have recently announced a strategic alliance with a focus on accelerating inclusion.
Yolanda Beattie, leader of Mercer’s learning & inclusion practice, said there is no denying that employers struggle to identify why certain talent segments don’t thrive at the same rate as others - and why there continues to be a lack of women in leadership positions.
Beattie added that now is the time for leaders to empower all talent and recognise the full value diversity brings to their organisation.
Dr Murphy’s P2YP has been an advocate for sponsorship as an effective tool to engage and challenge leaders to become more effective.
“Coaching and mentoring happen one-on-one, but sponsorship is about public advocacy, connecting you to audiences you might never normally access; increasing your visibility. It’s by definition public – someone putting their personal brand on the line to back another,” said Dr Murphy.
However, the role of a mentor and a sponsor are often mistakenly used interchangeably within organisations and among leaders.
“While both can greatly help the career of an individual, the difference is significant,” said Dr Murphy.
“By definition a mentor is an adviser who will listen and advise, they will talk to you to help you understand and navigate your organisation. It happens one-on-one,” she said.
“A sponsor talks about you. Its very nature is public - connecting you to audiences, opportunities and networks that typically, may be outside your own reach.”
There is a lot of research out there saying sponsorship is the missing piece for women. And sponsorship in Dr Murphy’s view works best when senior executives are matched with up-and-coming talent that is different to them.
“What this does, is support people on both sides of the fence – the ‘in’ group and ‘out’ group if you like – to ultimately create large and lasting change,” she said.
Dr Murphy added that when you have leaders who are personally invested and have gotten to know diverse talent through sponsorship, that’s when progress happens.
“I’ve seen it time and again: the leaders who have spent time with rising stars with different backgrounds tend to go back to their own line of business and start making changes off their own bat – recognising talent that’s different to themselves, learning and experimenting with how to best ‘involve difference’ and then reaching down and pulling up that talent,” said Dr Murphy.
“These leaders also become so much more aware of the barriers that hold people back, barriers that were previously invisible to them.”
