How to Build a Women’s Leadership Development Program

According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2022 report, women remain dramatically underrepresented in leadership. The greatest obstacle women face on the path to senior leadership is the first step from entry level to manager. Statistically, women are promoted here at much lower rates than men. This is known as the “broken rung,” and it’s become a huge problem for organizations everywhere.

The broken rung shows us that women’s leadership development, as it currently exists, is itself broken. Women are not given enough opportunities to rise to leadership positions because existing leadership development programs do not even afford them the opportunity to get started.

Fixing this problem is a critical imperative for all of us — not only because it’s obviously the right thing to do, but because promoting women into leadership roles is one of the most valuable ways today’s organizations can build the leaders they’ll need for the future of work.

As a leadership and development (L&D) professional, this change needs to start with you. Here are the four steps you can take to kick start a leadership development program that does right by the women in your organization:

Happily, we’ve entered an era where the systemic inequalities women and minorities have always faced in the workplace are finally receiving the attention they always should have. According to Deloitte research, 80% of employees say they want to work for inclusive companies . JUST Capital found that 94% of organizations have made a substantial commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace.

Encouraging as these first steps forward may be, however, they are just that: first steps. In order to begin building a women’s leadership development program that truly advocates for the women of your workplace, you’ll have to take this further.

As Harvard Business Review said in its article “Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case”: “Increasing diversity does not, by itself, increase effectiveness. What matters is how an organization harnesses diversity, and whether it’s willing to reshape its power structure.”

For organizations and for L&D professionals, the first step to building a leadership development program that truly centers on women is to make sure your entire organization knows why such a program is so important. The first step to building a better system is making sure everyone understands why that better system is needed.

For example, while research by Gartner found that 90% of HR leaders say today’s leaders must focus on the human aspects of leadership — such as authenticity, empathy, and adaptivity — only 29% of employees believe their leader exhibits what they would call “human” leadership. That’s a huge disconnect, and it’s one your women’s leadership development program can help fix.

As you’re establishing your leadership development program, take the time to re-evaluate what leadership can mean in your organization. Contrary to the out-of-date stereotypes, there are actually many different kinds of leaders.

Organizations that embrace a wide variety of leadership styles will find their leadership far more effective — and human — than those who focus on only one.

Learning is more effective when people learn together (86%)
Employees who learn together are more successful (91%)
Learning helps create a sense of belonging (92%)

Report on education progress regularly.
Remind employees why your new approach matters during meetings.
Incentivize your employees to keep taking DEI classes.

Develop concrete goals for each woman in your development program
Create step-by-step plans for each woman to reach those goals
Assign concrete, deliverable action items to be completed at each step
Schedule “checkpoint” conversations after each action item in a step is completed
Review overall progress as a regular part of their one-on-one check-ins

The time to start building a better women’s leadership development program is now. According to HR Reporter, women leaders are leaving their companies at a higher rate than ever before. These women are looking for better opportunities, and if they can’t find them with you, they’ll find them elsewhere.

You can’t afford to be without tomorrow’s great women leaders. Make sure your organization doesn’t get left behind by developing your women’s leadership development program today. LinkedIn Learning’s extensive Women in Leadership Learning Path can get you started.

How to Build a Women’s Leadership Development Program

Uplifting women in leadership development means confronting long-standing structural biases in how we teach and why.

4 steps to building a women’s leadership development program that works

Acknowledge and confront systemic bias

Actively unlearning established biases

Encourage women to develop the right leadership style for them

Developing different leadership styles

Emphasize inclusion education every day and everywhere

Creating a culture that empowers women leaders together

Build a formal structure to promote accountability

Designing a step-by-step program to uplift women leaders

Start developing the next generation of women leaders today