When we say compound effect, most people go to thoughts of money - we have all heard the examples of taking a penny that doubles in value every day for 30 days or taking a million dollars and who would be better off (in case you have not, take the penny!)
The concept of the compound effect has a lot of application and relevance outside of money though. And there has been a lot of research on the compound effect in leadership and success - Darren Hardy wrote a book about it, James Clear uses the principles in his own writing and many others have explored its impact on habits, actions, results, relationships and goals.
As we built our company, it was founded in the concept that we need to create the compound effect for women in corporate leadership. We cannot wait until women reach the pinnacle of their organization in a chief role to invest in their development, their growth and their leadership. Think about this: only 7.4% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs and 10.7% of Fortune 500 companies have female COOs.
If we are only investing resources like executive leadership and strategic coaching in the highest levels of the organization, we are losing out on the compound effect of growing women in leadership and making those stats so much better. So what if we commit to stopping the exodus of women in corporate leadership by choosing to invest in them sooner?
After this last year, where we have seen women disproportionately impacted by job losses, we know that if we stand a chance of reversing the loss of 30 years of gains, we have to change the game. We cannot have women outpace men in entry-level positions, only to watch the opportunities dwindle as they advance their careers.
While we cannot reverse all the impact with one action, we know that when women have the opportunity to show up as authentically themselves, they have higher engagement, they feel more valued and they tend to have longer tenure. Yet, nearly 50% of women do not feel as though they can be themselves at work, and that number gets even higher when you look specifically at women of color.
These statistics, and so many more that are out there, are what drove us to create a leadership development course for women, where they spend 12 weeks learning how to step into their authentic selves, leverage their strengths into opportunities for themselves and their organization and create higher contribution, engagement and progress.
We know that when women leaders are engaged, valued and invested in, the results are not just personal. The results impact growth and retention, as well as contribution, innovation and the bottom line. And, if we start that investment earlier in their careers, we know that there will a compound effect for women and for corporate America.
If you are interested in learning more about how we are building solutions to drive the compound effect for women in corporate leadership, click here.
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