At Paradigm for Parity, we know that one of the most powerful ways to advance truly equitable and thriving workplace cultures is by ensuring that diverse high performing talent can advance into leadership roles. According to McKinsey & Co.’s Women in the Workplace report employees feel happier in women-led organizations, are more productive, and experience a better work-life balance. And when women see themselves reflected in their leaders, a sense of inclusiveness and a feeling of possibility arises.
As women advance, it is critical that companies provide the development and support necessary for them to remain and thrive in those roles. Paradigm for Parity’s 5-Point Action Plan includes a commitment to significantly increase the number of women in senior operational roles.
To support this commitment, last year, we launched the Paradigm for Parity Profit & Loss Leadership Accelerator Program. The program’s goal was to provide more women with the training and opportunities necessary to advance into these operational leadership roles and create a pathway to the C-suite.
Open to women of all races, cultures and backgrounds, this unique, six-month program helps participants develop core leadership skills, and it opens access to one-to-one and group executive coaching, sponsorship and other opportunities. (To learn more about the P&L Leadership Accelerator Program, click here.)
The impact of the Profit & Loss Leadership Program was immediate and powerful. Thanks to executive coaching, the cohort of diverse women in the P&L program saw transformational level increases — as high as nearly 20% — in some of the four behavioral competencies including Leading Self, Leading Others, Leading Change and Leading the Organization.
Executive coaching can have as powerful an impact on companies and organizations as it has on individuals. AceUp, a human-centered leadership development partner that offers some of the industry’s most qualified leadership coaches, found that after three months with AceUp, leadership confidence, communications skills, and commitment to the organization improved.
- 96% feel more confident in their ability to succeed in their role
- 92% find significant improvement in their leadership, communications, and organizational skills
- 88% find that receiving coaching significantly affected their feelings about working at their company.
What’s more, these gains can be long-term, yielding significant improvements in succession planning, upskilling and reskilling, growing people leaders, attracting and retaining talent, aligning leadership, building competencies — and, critically, in focusing an organization on strong DEI priorities.
When we developed our new Center for Action, a resource hub to help companies put our 5-Point Action Plan to work, it was a slam-dunk for us to partner with AceUp. Founded in 2015 by business, HR, coaching and technology professionals who believed in the value of leadership coaching but saw its potential to be more systemic, AceUp is a leader in enterprise leadership development. AceUp has successfully delivered tens of thousands of coaching sessions for organizations across five continents.
The extraordinary resources AceUp offers will help our coalition members powerfully support women leaders, and our members get exclusive deals to AceUp’s stellar services. (If your company isn’t a member of the Coalition, click here to find out how you can become one!)
“Executive coaching has been a game changer for me,” says Paradigm for Parity CEO Sandra Quince.
“What I received was beyond anything I thought an executive coach would provide. I am a more self aware, confident and effective leader due to executive coaching; and I encourage every leader, especially women and women of color to invest in executive coaching.” — Sandra Quince, Paradigm for Parity CEO
Joshua Templeton, Chief Revenue Officer of AceUp, shares:
“Our partnership with Paradigm for Parity on the Center for Action aligns perfectly with our core goals and values surrounding gender parity, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our organization firmly believes in the power of diversity as a driver of innovation, creativity, and overall business success. We recognize that achieving gender parity and fostering an inclusive workplace is not just the right thing to do, but it’s also essential for our clients’ long-term sustainability and growth.”
About the Center for Action
The Center for Action is Paradigm for Parity’s new resource hub for companies to accelerate their progress on the 5-Point Action Plan to advance women across all levels of business leadership. The Center for Action is a one-stop location that joins Paradigm for Parity together with four curated launch partners who share and pursue essential goals and strategies in corporate culture: strong Diversity, Equity & Inclusion programs and practices, gender parity, and equitable leadership development and support.
The Center for Action brings relevant, powerful new partnerships to extend and support Paradigm for Parity’s Five-Point Action Plan:
- Minimize or eliminate unconscious bias
- Significantly increase the number of women in senior operational roles
- Measure targets at every level and communicate progress and results regularly
- Base career progress on business results and performance, not presence
- Identify women of potential and give them sponsors, as well as mentors
Through the Center for Action, coalition members of Paradigm for Parity will have access to unique opportunities or cost savings with a powerful consortium of partners. Launch partners include LiveGirl, TONE Networks, AceUp, Linkage, an SHRM company. Additional, highly curated and vetted partners will be added to speed and sustain progress to parity for Coalition members.
For more information about the Center for Action visit https://paradigm4parity.org/center-for-action/
