Executive Women Building Confidence: Breaking Through

Historically, there has been much discussion devoted to the question of why women are failing to rise to the top in organizations. Explanations vary: it’s the unconscious bias thing, the exclusion from networks thing, the institutional barriers thing, the lack of executive presence thing, the balance thing, the failure to ask for promotions thing and, most recently, the much publicized confidence thing.

Meanwhile, less attention has been paid to learning what works best to help women leaders overcome the barriers they face.  As a the designer of The Executive Leadership Program for Women (ELP) it’s been a privilege to partner with the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership in answering this question. Over more than seventeen years we have developed successful leadership training targeted for top talent women. . In May 2015 The Rutgers Center for Women and Work published a study tracking the results of our efforts through interviews with program graduates.

In depth interviews with thirty candidates selected at random from classes spanning from 2000 to 2013 found that 57 percent of those interviewed had achieved significant promotion. This result defies the norm with over half of our graduates rising through the ranks at precisely the moment when the representation of women normally drops off.

I’ve sent many women to the ELP, including five who are now Vice Presidents. The ELP experience has been crucial to women’s development at Verizon. – Diane McCarthy, SVP-Network & Technology, Verizon

What are the ELP candidates doing that allows them to rise at the moment when most women’s careers stall?

As Hermione Ibarra points out in her latest book Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader, action is the key to leadership. Reflecting on your strengths builds belief that you can do things. Actually doing them, getting feedback, learning and adjusting is the way to become the leader you wish to be. In The Executive Leadership Program for Women we think systemically while helping candidates act individually- bringing the biggest challenges for women’s advancement down to the individual’s locus of control.

Candidates engage in sustained action over six months as they test strategies and enlist real time feedback from colleagues and mentors inside their organizations. At the same time, they share their discoveries and questions with executive coaches and trusted peer mentoring circles who understand the complexities of life as a working women. Learning in action with ongoing encouragement and guidance — turns them from excellent managers into great leaders.