Hello, everyone. My name is Christy Conser and I actually would like to talk to you today about how to help, help you avoid making this statement. There goes another great one.I'm gonna be sharing three critical strategies that C suite executives need to implement immediately to reverse the brain drain. I'm next in line, top female talent and um I just wanted to, before we dive into today's topic, I hope everyone's been having a great experience with the conference so far. This definitely represents my happy face at being able to connect again um with people at these types of events. I think it's so important and uh and I love the fact that we're focusing on women in the tech world. Um that is uh a, a topic that's very near and dear to my heart. So, um hopefully you're getting a lot out of the conference and I'm excited to be talking about this super important topic about how we increase gender diversity uh at the leadership levels in the tech world.

And what we know is that the business case has never been stronger, right? For well over the past 10 years, there have been numerous data sources that show that companies who have greater gender diversity at the leadership level and on their boards outperform their peers who don't have gender diversity. And specifically, it's shows up in several concrete ways, higher profitability, higher productivity and employee engagement, greater employee satisfaction, improved company reputation, and also greater diversity of thinking style which leads to greater innovation and creativity. So this has been shown from many different data sources.

Certainly mckinsey and linkedin um Deloitte catalyst research research from Zinger Folkman leadership circle, many others. So there is a compelling business case and in fact, the case has never been more compelling than it is today. So if that business case is so compelling and it's widely known, then why is it, for example, mckenzie and lean in in their latest report found that for every woman at the director level who gets promoted, two actually are leaving their employer, they're quitting to go elsewhere.

So think of all that money being washed down the drain all that time and effort that is not achieving its intended outcomes, right? It's a huge waste of resources and it's really frustrating. Another thing that's really interesting. So you think about this brain drain of female talent and unfortunately, you know, when it comes to investment companies in the US alone, invest over $8 billion a year on gender diversity initiatives. And yet, um it's not having the desired effect of retaining women at the leadership level.

Not only that, unfortunately, what we know is that women are 65% more likely than men in the tech world to get laid off. So more than their fair share of uh layoffs have happened to women. So all of these things are having a compounding effect in really creating uh what is an urgent talent shortfall, especially having that ready now, leadership bench um to run companies in the future. So today, what I'd like to talk about are the two most common approaches that companies are implementing in good faith, by the way that actually often backfire and make people want to make women want to flee even faster. So we'll talk about what those are as well as the five warning signs that if they are flashing at your company means that your organization is about to an ex experience, an exodus of talented um next in line, top female talent, then we will talk about the three critical strategies to grow and retain more women leaders.

And finally, I'll wrap it up with some real world lessons as well as pay it forward advice from our different work with clients and our clients engagements. All right. So just to introduce myself and share a bit about me again. My name is Christy Conser and I'm an executive coach and leadership consultants. Uh I run a company called Sustainable Leadership Advisors, but I've also been a former Chief People Officer. Uh I run sustainability. I've worked in several Fortune 500 companies and I'm uh, I'm also a mom and a wife so I know all too well. Um the competing demands that professional women face and, and uh and it's with this perspective, both um being someone who has been on the receiving end of these types of programs as well as a practitioner and, and working to drive to make real change uh with my client companies uh that I'd like to share my perspectives with you today.

So let's turn first to those 22 common uh tactics that people implement, that companies implement in good faith that can actually backfire and this might surprise you. So the first one is having a women's employee resource group and putting that in place and thinking by checking the box on having uh a women's er g that the women's leadership issue is handled. Now, why uh why is that alone? Not enough? Why does it backfire? So what we find is that you put, if you put a number of women together in a setting and you're all talking about common frustrations or problems, but there is really nothing to be done, done to address. What are those challenges that women are facing in your organization? And there's not a full 360 conversation happening inside the organization, then it can end up being kind of an echo chamber and uh and lead women to conclude that, well, this isn't actually a priority because it's all of us, you know, we're already the converted, don't preach to the converted.

We want to have a larger discussion within the organization and figure out how to make the work environment, one that is, um, friendly to all and works for everybody. So that's one reason, uh, one thing that if you just put em, employ, employ a resource group into place but it's not well funded, it's only attended by women and no meaningful change comes from it that can actually end up backfiring bedtime, right? And um and so if you do, by the way, have an employee resource group in place, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It can't be the only thing. And so uh you wanna think about to what degree do you actually have measurable goals, outcomes, tangible tools and a true organization wide focus, not just putting the women um in a group group and having feel good discussions but nothing ever changes. So, so that's the first one, the second common approach that we see the companies again, they're implementing in good space. Uh But that can actually back backfire is putting a mentoring program in place, but not tailoring it specifically to the needs of women professionals.

And here's what I mean by that. So if you have a generic mentoring program, um what we, what we know from the data, what research shows is that throughout their careers, women don't get enough specific constructive feedback about what it is that they need in order to advance their careers. And typically mentors uh are not trained on how to provide that feedback in a way that they feel comfortable doing. And so that can end up holding women back, they can feel like, ok, I've got these mentors. Um This should be helpful. Why am I not advancing? And oftentimes it's because the mentoring isn't achieving the uh uh desired objectives of providing specific concrete um feedback that helps women advance their careers. So, in our programs, when we work with our clients through this proprietary framework, uh one of the things that we do is we teach them uh how to give what we call fearless feedback. So how to bring things up in a way where women can hear it and openly take in constructively this information. And also the mentors don't feel uh intimidated or hesitant to provide that really, really useful, helpful feedback. All right.

So again, not saying, and hopefully you do have some mentoring programs available, but it can't be the only thing and it has to be done in the right way and provide that specific feedback and guidance that women uniquely need um in order to succeed. OK. So we've talked about those two common approaches that can backfire. Now, what I'd like to do is talk about what are those warning signs that you are about to experience an exodus of talented women in your organization. So the first warning sign that it's, you know, it's blinking red. This means uh danger. You're about to lose some really talented women. The first warning sign is if you have what I call the, I can't see it. So it can't be a factor. In other words, if women at lower levels can't see a number of women in senior positions succeeding at that level, they'll conclude that this is not a place for them where they can be successful. And you know what we know from the data is that most tech companies, at least at the lower levels and individual contributor levels often are pretty equal in terms of uh gender representation. But as soon as you get to a leadership role, that management level, that first management level, that's where we tend to see the drop off uh of women represented and it just goes down from there.

So um you want to make sure that at the VP, the SVP, the C suite level that there are women successful women who others can look up to and say, OK, it is possible this is a place where I can successfully build my career. Um And this is important, you know, for a number of reasons because you know what we know is oftentimes uh women in order for them to get promoted, they have to prove both their performance history and have several wins wrapped up, right? Um And really have um a history of delivering, but they also have to have demonstrated potential. Whereas oftentimes men will get promoted more based on potential alone, they're given the benefit of the doubt, but women have to prove that competence in fact, over prove it. And so you'll really want to take a look at if someone were coming in and checking out your company website. What does it look like? What is the senior leadership team look like? And if you don't have gender diversity there, you're going to have a problem and you need to address that. So the second warning sign uh that you are about to lose talented women to one of your competitors is if you have uh if you don't have pay equity. And so by the way, if you don't already, you should know uh what the pay levels are between men and women.

And uh and we know, unfortunately that uh even though this has been an issue for a while still today, women only make 84 cents on the dollar compared to men in equal roles. So this is something you really want to be proactive about. You don't want to have people raise it. Uh You might think that people aren't talking about compensation, but they always do, trust me. And if the word gets out that women are not uh adequately and fairly compensated on par with men, uh that will be a huge deterrent in retaining talented women. So definitely both be proactive with that. All right. The third warning sign that you are about to lose talented women to a competitor is if your company doesn't have specific stated gender goals for both the leadership level and on your board of directors, and if you think about it, companies would never say uh well, yeah, we wanna be profitable but not set a specific goal.

You know, a company is serious about something if they publicly state and publicly set goals and targets, right? So sales profitability, market share, you would never say our company is committed to sales, but then not have a target, right? And so the same thing uh for again, having specific gender goals for both the leadership and the board, if you're not measuring it and you're not talking about it openly, that's a sign that you're not taking it seriously. It's more nice to have maybe it sounds good from APR or a marketing perspective. Uh But saying gender diversity is important without specific goals um shows that you're not really serious about it. And again, why be serious about it? Because the business case is so strong, it impacts all areas of your business and we know the most resilient profitable companies are those with greater gender diversity. So it just makes good business sense and if it makes good business sense, it makes sense to have a specific strategy in place uh and specific goals. All right, the uh the next the fourth warning sign uh that you will lose talented women is if gender diversity isn't prioritized as a competitive business issue.

So I talked uh just a moment ago about how often times this can be part of a corporate social responsibility initiative, part of um working on your company reputation and your employer brand. But if not, it's not something that's really truly seen and embraced as a way to be more competitive and a better company overall. Again, it shows that you're not serious and that you're paying lip service to it more than taking it seriously as this is a way that we're going to win in the marketplace by having that greater diversity of thought of style of perspectives that women bring to the table. And because so few women are represented, it's still less than 30% who are in the C Suite. Um you know, you're missing out on a really valuable perspective in the marketplace. So if this isn't considered, not just uh you know, an hr issue, but a competitive business strategic issue that is prioritized at the company level, not, you know, just within hr uh or within diversity inclusion, then people are going to know that you're not serious. And finally, uh the last warning sign is if there is a lack of true C Suite sponsorship and advocacy specifically for having balanced uh gender diverse leadership and yes, C Suite is important. Absolutely. But the CEO in particular has got to be behind it.

That's how people judge, right? What a company is serious about is what is the CEO particularly committed to authentically passionate about, um you know, and willing to set goals and targets in order to get there. And again, it's not, it's not a nice thing to do. It's good for business. So it just makes sense that this would be a strategic priority. Ok. So we just talked about the five warning signs that you are about to lose women to a competitor uh that offers uh a better work environment for them. So let's talk now about the three critical strategies that you need to implement in order to retain, accelerate and advance women leaders and prepare them to drive breakthrough results for your company. So the first strategy is, are you making this a holistic competitive business strategy?

This needs to be all hands on deck. It's not about fixing the women. Um Instead, this is a company wide 360 degree strategy to create competitive advantage with quantitative goals and metrics. All right. And when you have that, when you think about uh an overall corporate strategy, it's like a change management approach that you need to take, you need to involve all of the stakeholders, not just the women in for input and action, right? It involves manager managers, it involves mentors uh senior leaders across all of the business units. They all play a role in creating a more gender diverse uh leadership team. So this is really a cultural transformation uh that involves all areas of business, not just hr and again, it's about winning, right? It is about winning business. That's not an exaggeration, by the way, um I was at a uh meeting with ac suite group of clients and they were determining um what they wanted to do in terms of diversity efforts at their organization. And the chief sales officer walked in and shared how they had just lost out on an eight figure deal because this potential client customer uh looked at the company website and the about our team, the leadership page and it was all men and they went with a competitor who had greater diversity.

Um That was an, that was an important factor to them. So this has real business implications and that means it needs to be part of the culture uh and part of a change management approach within the organization. It's just, you know, smart business strategy and involves everyone, not just, you know, putting women in a room. Um but it involves leaders across all levels. All right, the second critical ST strategy to leverage is to use the latest advances in neuroscience to actually inform um how the women are developed and prepared to lead at higher levels. And so specifically, when uh the great news is that there's been a lot of advances in brain science. And so we understand more about the differences between uh men and women and their leadership styles and how do we leverage the brilliance that is in those differences. So, um you know, I refer to it as, you know, not just the inner game of leadership or not just the outer game of leadership, which is teaching what are the strategies, the tactics uh to be an effective leader, but it's also the inner game around the mindset, understanding uh how we tend to approach things differently and how to really leverage those strengths in order to make you, uh you know, uh just a, a better professional and uh a better collaborator at work.

So we recommend uh you know, and, and we, we pull that into all of our programs. It's really both the inner game, the, the neuroscience based approach uh and working on mindset and resilience and specifically what the differences are between men and women um and different tools that are helpful between men and women. Uh And the outer game of what are the strategies, what are the tactics, what are the best practices that um that women need to know in order to gain parity at those leadership levels? All right. And then last, but not least, uh the, the uh next strategy is um really being able to, as you are approaching this as a, again, a holistic business strategy and doing so, um you know, in a very thoughtful way, using the latest tools. It's also having the ability and making sure that it includes um speaking what is typically unspoken. Um And, but what I mean by that is there are subtle cultural and gendered messages um and factors that are at play that influence how men and women show up differently in the workplace and in different cultures too.

And um and women are rewarded and penalized slightly differently for how they show up versus men. And it's important to create awareness around those not from a um you know, not from a combative standpoint, but truly to create awareness and to create conversations. Um And, and also teach people the tools to be curious, to be curious and, and practice what we call listening openly and with compassionate curiosity, right? So what we find um is listening well, is really uh a surprisingly rare skill. And so being curious about other people's viewpoints and perspectives, it's not, you know, which one's gonna win, but being really curious and looking for the good ideas um teaching skills around how do you have uh what can be challenged, challenging conversations in a charge, neutral way.

So you can bring up things that uh are real factors at play, but in a way where people don't get their defenses up, um that is, that's hugely important and needs to be a part of this effort. Um And the reason why I mean, it just ends up creating a better environment for everyone when people are able to raise issues respectfully and know that it's safe to do that. And they feel like they have the tools to be able to have their voices heard, not in a way that's combative, but in a way that is constructive and leads to better collaboration. So this is an important component that you need to include. Um And again, you know, when, when we um at the beginning of our engagements with clients, this is built into the proprietary process of outlining what those messages are. And then what's the um what's the approach to teaching that throughout the organization? Not just to the women, but creating real conversations around it and seeing what good things come out of those conversations. All right. And so the last thing I would like to share is then some real world advice, some, some pay it forward lessons that uh that, you know, we've, we've gotten the benefit of over the years.

Um things that clients have wanted to share just kind of like lessons learned uh and best practices. So the first thing um in, in this pay it forward advice that I would say is really critical. And by the way, this is something that we certainly did not do enough of at the beginning uh in working with our different clients, we, we have many multiyear engagements with different clients. And um as you can imagine, it's been an iterative process. Uh and, and we learn and improve with each cycle. Uh The first thing is the importance of engaging people's managers in the process. So, uh when you have a cohort of your high potential women that are going through this, you know, multimodal development opportunity, they're getting exposure to senior leadership, they have mentors, they're getting great feedback. It's also, you know, they're getting training, they're getting more connected inside the organization, they're helping to lead the dialogue and discussion within their respective parts of the organization. Again, it's that holistic 360 approach. Uh One of the most important things.

In fact, you know, statistically what's shown is that the biggest factor in um in people actually implementing and sticking with what they learn is the involvement and support of their manager. And so this is something that just more recently uh more recent years as we learned about how important this factor was, uh we've built that in. So that means for example, getting their manager's input on what's most important uh for this person's development and having a conversation about how they can support the women throughout this effort, equipping them with the tools to provide this fearless feedback and then also giving them some different suggestions and brainstorming with them are um what are different ways that they can design in greater exposure, help them build more relationships inside the organization.

Uh There are a number of different things that a manager is uniquely qualified to do and especially, you know, kind of being that day to day contact, it's incredibly valuable. So I would say, yes, mentorship, uh you know, exposure to senior executives, that's all important, but certainly making their managers a key part of the process and really partnering with them on um each person's individual development plan has uh that's really paid rewards and really helped um help the women develop uh more and faster.

All right. The second, um the second piece of advice that we, that we wanna pay forward is to think about what are tangible wins that you can create for all of the stakeholders who are involved in this 360 approach, right? This overall company strategy. Um And I'll give you an example, you know, um in, in all of the programs that, that we uh you know, co facilitate or, you know, lead on behalf of our clients. There are different executives who come and get exposure to the women, but it's not just a one way dialogue and it's, you know, them sharing their words of wisdom, it's a conversation and it's a way for the executives to have um you know, exposure to and gain awareness of this talent that's inside the organization that they normally wouldn't.

So they're getting exposure to a broader uh potential future bench of talent. They can also ask questions uh that and, and learn from things that these women are seeing that they aren't aware of. So there's a great uh there's a great win, win, right, for both of them, um same things with, you know, if you think about just the, the whole factor of creating a, a stronger bench, that's a huge concern of CEO S right, of the C Suite is making sure that you have a great succession plan in place.

It's an important uh objective for most hr teams, right? And so, um this is a way for uh the company to build greater strength in that area, having a strong uh succession bench and plan and having more, um you know, having more talent and visibility to that, that's a huge win for the C suite and for hr teams as well. Uh And, and also, you know, I mentioned the importance of managers and making sure that you involve managers. Um Well, um you know, as a manager who is highly involved um throughout this process, you also then sharpen your skills as a leader and you become known as a cultivator of talent and people love to join teams where the manager is excellent. If they know this is a place uh where I'm gonna be supported, this person knows how to develop people, I see them consistently. Um you know, showing up giving great constructive feedback, um that's uh that's pretty attractive for future employees and, and people deciding where they want to work.

So, thinking about how do you create tangible wins for all the stakeholders and building that in to how the program is executed uh is really important. All right. And then the last piece of pay it forward advice that I would like to share with you is all around what we, what we began by talking about. You know, if you take this seriously, then you have goals, make sure to track your data and not only that calculate the ro i impact of your efforts. And um and so I'll give you an example. So, you know, companies have goals on what your retention rate is, what your promotion rate is the time to promotion, right? Employee engagement, survey results and all of those things, you know, especially retention, for example, that has real tangible cost associated with it.

And so you will want to measure what is the retention of these high um high potential uh leaders over time. Uh One company that I work with, for example, they, they measured over time and over four years, which included the COVID years when uh the turnover rate for women was at an all time high. They had a 92% retention rate of top female leaders over those four years. Not only that, but several of them had been promoted at two levels in just that amount of time. Um So they achieved well over a 400% ro I on the investment just based on red reduced turnover alone. Not to mention the fact that many of these women are going on to lead some of the highest growth areas in their company. Um So it's really important to be able to track and measure uh and have the hard data to be able to point to. Uh and that also is, is going to um you know, just give you an indication of what can you really improve by focusing on this effort and the value, the hard business value that you need to prove to the organization. So in addition to all of the other things uh that I mentioned in that business case, this is, you know, very easily tracked data that's important to capture and, and show the value of investing in this in the right way in a way where you are driving for measurable results.

Right? Again, it can't be getting people into a conference room for a lunch and learn and thinking that that's it. No, you've got to have some specific targets that you're aiming to achieve and then put the right steps in place and create the holistic support in order to make that happen. All right. And so, uh so just to wrap things up here, we are coming uh to the end. I don't know if anybody has any questions. By the way, if you do certainly feel free to put those in the chat. Um But today we discussed the two common approaches that um companies implementing good faith that unfortunately can backfire as well as the five warning signs. You're about to experience an exodus of, of top female talent. We talked about the three critical strategies to growing and retaining more women leaders. And I shared some real world lessons and pay it forward advice um from doing these types of programs and working with some progressive companies over the years. Uh I see we have a hand raised and there is uh also something in the chat from Deborah. So Deborah asked, can you give an example of how someone has raised an issue if the culture hasn't changed enough yet? In a non combative or defensive way? Yes.

And um by the way, that is like the million dollar question too because it's really hard. So, uh so the way to do it is this fearless uh feedback framework that we teach. Um And, you know, I don't have time obviously to go deep into it, but I'll tell you at a high level, what it involves is being able to observe the environment and state what it is that you see in a factual way that doesn't have blame or judgment attached. So state your factual observation and then describe the impact that you see it having, whether it's on yourself or on others and then making a suggestion or a request um to improve things. Oftentimes what we find is that people aren't aware uh people. And, you know, oftentimes the, the, the the men aren't aware that some of the things that women experience and rather than feeling intimidated to bring it up. Um If you can bring it up in a factual way, uh And I'll give you an, I'll, I'll just make up an example on the, on the fly. So for example, uh say that you are the only woman in a meeting and you get cut off and it's really frustrating and you feel like someone took over your meeting, what you can do either, um either during or after the meeting is say, uh you know, if it's during the meeting, you wanna say, oh, excuse me, you know, I wasn't done yet.

I'd like to finish my, my thoughts. Uh But you can say, you know, uh I, I've just started sharing uh my ideas in this meeting and uh and you interjected and so what I asked, you know, and so I wasn't able to finish my point and I'd like to be able to share the full extent of my thoughts cause I put a lot of um you know, effort into this.

And so my request is let me just, you know, get to get to my point here and then let's open it up for discussion. I'd like to finish my point, right? So it's not saying, hey, you jerk, you cut me off. It's, you know, uh I started, I started sharing this but I haven't finished and so I'd like to finish my point and then we can open it up to discussion So that's just an example of a way to uh bring things up in uh a way that doesn't uh hopefully raise people defenses as much as if you were to uh you know, do it in an accusatory or judgmental way.

Uh Any other questions that folks have. Um And obviously, every situation, you know, is, is kind of different, but, you know, a lot of times people don't even realize that, you know, for example, in that instance, that they cut people off or that they interject. And so just creating that awareness, stating the facts can help. All right. So um so hopefully, these gave you some good ideas and tips. Um If you feel like this would be a beneficial discussion and other senior leaders in your organization would benefit from hearing this. Let me know. Um and I'm happy to schedule an encore presentation. Um This is a QR code that you can scan in terms of getting in touch with me if you wanna talk about that. Um Or even if your organization is already on this journey, but you feel like, you know, we can't figure out why we aren't getting the results that we want to happy to hold a discussion around that as well. So um please feel free to get in touch with me. And uh and thank you very much again, there is, there's that code uh Here is my contact information and how to get in touch with me. Oh, I see another question in Q and A. So uh let me pull that up. Oh, Deborah, you're welcome. Um Thank you so much for your time and uh I believe we are done. Thank you everyone. Bye.