The partnership model, a talent management program
The leadership program “Female Future” is designed to develop and educate future female and male candidates for executive and board positions.
This program deserves special attention as it obligates both, women and men, and the management. This program is a very effective mixture of workshops, networking and mentoring. Special workshops for senior management as well as joint events with the female and male talents raise awareness for the benefits of mixed management teams, change the corporate culture and provide the key implementation processes.
Management of the 3rd Millennium requires leadership and ability of strong communication skills, the ability to see the broader picture, needs understanding of others and the ability to empathize, needs focus on the team rather than on power games. This is what I mean with the Female Approach and the partnership model. What would your organization look like with an implemented partnership model? What would it be like and what would it feel like to work there?
From research done in this field we know that – if this is done the right way – it leads to a number of both business and societal benefits:
- The company is more successful and effective, because it increases efficiency and applies a better utilization of the individual and the integral potential.
- More women in the top management means more diversity. More diversity leads to more innovation and to a better basis for taking better and more sustainable decisions.
- The career culture is less defined by power games and individual drives but becomes a managed and healthy part of the corporate culture.
- The program contributes to the Employer Branding and creates the future influx of new, competent staff , attracting the best talents, both women and men. What we see from demographics, is that there will be a huge lack of people to fill the vacant positions created in the near future. The greatest challenge for HR departments these days is to meet this challenge and compete for the best talents which are women.
Working with this program means:
- to involve the top management in the role of the sponsor, which is crucial for the implementations and the long-term effects
- to strategically implement a gender policy defining how and why it’s done and also its goals
- to identify, consciously create and utilize career codes for both, women and men
- to base gender projects on factual and relevant challenges for the company for a mutual benefit
- to align all activities in the program with the strategic goals and ethical standards of the organization
- to review frame conditions for appropriate adjustments to the needs of both genders
- to support the alikeness of women and men as well as their differences
- to enhance interaction between women and men
- to create a broad commitment and gender-overall team spirit.
Strategic consideration and conclusion:
A politically set quota would provide the necessary external pressure and improve widely the career opportunities for women. But a quota by law might not be the preferred choice from a business perspective. Quotas help to attract women, but cannot manage to retain them. Previous approaches, which focused only on support through child care programs and training of women fall short. It is about understanding, not about obligation.
Companies that have a genuine interest in women in leadership go beyond this. They take account of the life stages and the individual strengths of women and men and promote a respectful cooperation in mixed management teams. And the example of Norway shows that an appropriate handling can produce very good results.