The Pipeline Solution:
A Career Advancement Program
for Emerging Women Leaders
The Problem
Many companies are investing in recruiting and advancing talented women, and with good reason. “The typical firm experiences a 15 percent increase in profitability when it goes from having no women in corporate leadership (C-suite, Board of Directors) to 30 percent female representation," according to a study of 22,000 companies published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics*.
However, much of this investment ultimately is lost, as an estimated 30 - 50% of high potential managers and executives derail**. There are fewer and fewer women at each step along the path to senior management. And the price of derailment is high, with the average cost to replace a talented employee estimated at 1.5 times her/his salary.
* “Study: Firms with More Women in the C-Suite Are More Profitable,” Marcus Noland & Tyler Moran, Harvard Business Review, February 8, 2016.
** Research by the Center for Creative Leadership.
The Solution
One of the most impactful ways to avoid derailment and promote the long-term career success of high potential women is to nurture early to mid-career talent. Emerging women leaders need to build career management and leadership skills, strengthen networks, and find advocates. This is especially true in professional fields such as engineering, finance, law, technology, and consulting, where professionals tend to build strong analytical and technical competencies but often lack the opportunity to build skills necessary to advance such as: managing a team, building client relationships, influencing without authority, and negotiating organizational politics.
The Pipeline Solution provides
a comprehensive program to:
Teach mid-level women professionals how to take charge of their careers
Develop abilities complementary to technical expertise including critical influencing, interpersonal, and management skills
Build a stronger network of women with diverse skills and backgrounds
Involve managers and executives in supporting and advocating for women’s careers.
The Benefits
Typical results for women include a 60 - 80% increase in comfort with speaking up and asking for more responsibilities or new roles/positions
40-60% of the women earn new responsibilities or positions.
Additional Results
For the Firm:
Increase retention and lower recruiting costs
Improve productivity and efficiency
Develop more effective managers and leaders
Strengthen professionals’ bonds to the firm
Demonstrate support for career development by senior management.
For the Employee:
Improve ability to get up to speed on new responsibilities and succeed as a leader
Develop key assertiveness and career management skills
Increase the probability that both men and women will advance and thrive at more senior levels
Avoid the common errors made by mid-level professionals and new officers
Build confidence and skills in communication, personal presence, and relationship management.
What Makes This Program Unique?
The Pipeline Solution supports emerging women leaders in mastering the skills and mindsets that are critical to advancement. Truly mastering complex new social skills requires a shift in stubborn behavior patterns and ingrained biases. This takes time, and a multi-pronged approach.
At the program’s core is a web-based learning series delivering expert content and peer group discussion. Equally important are individualized coaching and ongoing engagement with peers. As a recent Harvard Business Review discussion of the future of leadership development indicated, “…learning happens best when learners collaborate and help one another…Mastery depends on practice and feedback.” Indeed, practice is powerful: new research in neuroscience demonstrates that behavior can change from practicing for as little as two minutes every day.
Given the demands of our 24/7 world, we find that the best way to develop competence is to deliver learning content in small pieces over time, offer a variety of methods, and build in manageable practice. The program approach includes:
Women-only audience. Women face unique challenges, and in our experience, women tend to open up, share, and help each other more readily in single-gender programs.
Focus on expanding self-awareness. Research in positive psychology demonstrates that having a positive mindset is the most critical determinant of whether new behaviors will be adopted and sustained.
Provide short, targeted learning programs led by topic experts and skilled facilitators using a variety of methods: group discussions, role-play, self-assessments, and small group exercises.
Peer Mentoring Groups. These groups help build a strong network to support new behaviors and develop coaching skills.
Targeted brief programs for managers and inclusion of senior leaders at program meetings and networking events. Involving managers is crucial to reinforcing the participants’ success and inviting senior leaders to attend programs along with at least one networking event demonstrates the organization’s commitment and expands networks and exposure.
Provide follow-up, targeted one-on-one coaching. Research also shows that follow-up, one-on-one coaching provides an 80% increase in the likelihood that behavior changes will be sustained beyond the program. We typically provide 1-2 hours of individualized coaching for participants.
3. “The Future of Leadership Development,” Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Naravandas, Harvard Business Review, March 2019
Program Development & Delivery
A typical program is geared for 15 to 25 participants with the potential to expand up to 50 if desired. There are a variety of options within the program format depending on needs and budgets. Given the virtual environment, the emphasis would be on holding shorter sessions more frequently and utilizing the technology to make sure that there is plenty of opportunity for small group, paired, and large group discussions. All the seminars listed below will be run using an interactive approach on Zoom and will range between one-to-two hours on a bi-monthly basis. (When safe and if desirable, we can transition to a hybrid model with a combination of in-person and virtual sessions.)
One-year program includes a needs assessment/focus group, development of a Career Management Strategies document, recommendations for a development curriculum/plan, three-four pilot seminars over a six-to-eight-month period, one-on-one coaching sessions before the first seminar and then again later in the program, a peer coaching program, two one-hour sessions specifically for managers, and pre- and post-tests.
Two/three years or more builds on the one-year skills, plus additional, targeted programs and revisions based on learning from pre- and post-tests.
Possible Seminar Topics
Career Management Strategies & Tactics
Collaborative Competition: A Women’s Guide to Succeeding in Competitive Environments
Smart Career Risk-Taking
Networking Tactics and Powerful Presence for a Virtual World
Organizational Savvy: How to Influence and Make an Impact
The Productive Perfectionist: Strategies and Tactics for Women to Smash the Shackles of Perfectionism
Management Skills Series:
Understanding the Role of the Manager
Leading High Performing Teams
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Resolving Conflict
Thinking Strategically
Coaching, Empowering, and Delegating
Executive presence
