Build a More Diverse Leadership Pipeline to Accelerate Innovation
Is your leadership pipeline a desert when it comes to diversity? How can you promote diversity at all levels?
Our top three recommendations to promote diversity:
Champion Diversity: Commit to diversity as a catalyst for productivity and innovation and adopt a deliberate strategy to build a robust pipeline of leaders.
Hyper-personalize Development: Invest in your high-potential diverse team members at every level, unlocking their full potential.
Ready Managers: Equip managers to lead diverse teams, embracing different perspectives and driving collaboration.
How do you upskill your managers in a meaningful way?
From years of behavioral research and experience in developing talent, here’s our top piece of advice:
Focus on Business Impact First
Sounds simple, right? But what does this actually entail?
Let’s examine the traditional model. With good intentions, you may decide that all your high-potential employees need training on presenting to executive audiences and that your managers should be educated about unconscious bias. You identify who needs improvement in these areas, organize workshops, and invite experts to assist.
However, what often happens? You might achieve 90% attendance at your workshops, actively engage participants during the sessions, and encourage everyone to implement what they learned afterward. Yet, the reality is that fewer people than expected apply these techniques in their daily work. While you might receive positive feedback on the workshops, the inevitable question arises: so what? Have you genuinely helped the careers of any of your diverse candidates or their managers?
The method of upskilling is just as crucial as the content itself. It’s imperative that your training connects directly to specific leadership outcomes and business impacts. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Our Recommendation
Stop merely pushing skills or competencies. Instead, concentrate on the business impact—the challenges or opportunities a manager faces. For instance, they might say:
- “I need my team to deliver a significant feature quickly, but I’m unsure we can meet the deadline“
- “We’re struggling with low engagement; how can I boost morale and productivity?“
Since each challenge is unique, deliver a hyper-personalized upskilling experience tailored to address that specific issue. Ultimately, you can measure the results:
- “My team delivered on time!“
- “Our productivity has soared, and morale is higher than ever!“
And, yes, the manager has also learned how to coach more and tell less through the process.
Learning & Development is often seen as discretionary. The answer? Prioritize business impact.
“When I take on any new role, my first focus is understanding customer needs and assessing our talent to meet those needs. In this case, we rose to the challenge and accelerated our diverse talent in record time—unheard of!”
MEET Jayshree: Chief Technology Officer, 23 years experience
“I just started in this position and am assessing the talent. Diversity is critical to accelerating our performance, and my new team does have good diversity representation, but only in the individual contributor and first-level manager roles. The leadership team is too homogenous, and we need diverse perspectives to build our product pipeline. I could start hiring from the outside when positions open, but I want to develop from within. I need to work with my HR business partner, but I’m unsure where to start. What should be my first steps?”
Jayshree, alongside her HR and finance partners, strategically identified promising leaders and allocated the necessary budget to upskill and elevate diverse talent.
By investing in Gotara’s neuroscience-based approach, which offers tailored on-the-job training for high-potential employees, she rapidly builds a strong and sustainable talent pipeline.
The results? Through a partnership with Gotara, she successfully promoted 36% of emerging leaders within nine months, effectively filling critical vacancies. Now, Jayshree has a robust and diverse pipeline essential for achieving desired outcomes. Additionally, her team experienced a 10% reduction in attrition and met 100% of their business goals!
Gotara Works
UP TO97%
of participants retained
UP TO76%
of participants had their careers accelerated within the 1st year
94%
of participants rate a 20-80% improvement on specific skills
94%
of participants made Moderate to Significant advancements towards their goal
Ready to build a more diverse leadership pipeline to accelerate innovation?
