While women have made significant gains over the last decade, only half of companies are now prioritizing women’s career advancement, reflecting a multi-year decline in commitment to gender diversity. This lack of focus is having a measurable impact: women remain underrepresented at every level of the pipeline, with representation in the C-suite stuck at just 29 percent.

To turn the tide in 2026, organizations must move beyond slogans and address the systemic barriers that are currently rolling back progress.

The Persistence of the “Broken Rung”

The primary obstacle to a diverse leadership pipeline remains the “broken rung” at the first step up to manager. For every 100 men promoted to manager in 2025, only 93 women were promoted, and the gap is even wider for women of color. Because men significantly outnumber women at the manager level from the start, women can never catch up, leaving the leadership pipeline depleted at every subsequent level. This gap is not due to a lack of dedication; the research shows that women and men are equally committed to their careers, yet women receive less of the critical support needed to advance.

The Hidden Barriers: Sponsorship and Stigma

Two critical factors are widening the gap between male and female advancement:

• The Sponsorship Gap: Employees with sponsors are nearly twice as likely to be promoted, yet women—especially at the entry level—are significantly less likely to have an advocate in senior leadership who can open doors.
• Flexibility Stigma: The survey data shows that women who work remotely are 1.5 times less likely to be promoted than those who work on-site, even though men are promoted at similar rates regardless of their location. This suggests that women are disproportionately penalized by the unfounded belief that flexible work equals lower commitment.

A Roadmap for Organizational Change

How to improve results? Organizations can adopt three key strategies:

 1. Ensure Hiring and Promotions are Merit-BasedCompanies must implement a comprehensive set of research-backed practices rather than isolated initiatives. This includes setting clear evaluation criteria before the process begins, anonymizing resumes, and using quantifiable measures (like 1-to-5 ratings) to reduce subjectivity. When clear criteria are used, subjective, biased comments about women in performance reviews have been shown to drop from 14% to just 1%.

 2. Prioritize Development Managers are the primary drivers of an employee’s day-to-day experience, yet many lack the time to focus on development. Organizations should free up managers from routine tasksto allow them to spend more time coaching their teams. Training is also essential; when managers are trained to provide specific, actionable feedback and to distribute stretch assignments fairly, team motivation and performance rise.

 3. Foster Authentic Sponsorship and CommunityFormal sponsorship programs are vital for giving women access to senior-level advocates. Beyond formal programs, organizations can strengthen Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)to provide the informal mentorship and professional advice that women often miss out on. In 2025, 91% of the companies surveyed are maintaining or scaling up their ERGs to build the community and empathy necessary for an inclusive culture.

The Bottom Line

Limiting women in leadership isn’t only a diversity issue; it’s a financial one. Women leaders drive higher employee engagement and better performance, saving their organizations an estimated $1.43 million for every 1,000 employees through reduced disengagement. As we move forward in 2026, the companies that recommit to women’s advancement and leverage AI to root out bias will be the ones that win the war for talent.

I love working with strong and successful women in how they can move up and in how all organizational leaders can improve their financial results by increasing the number of women in leadership. Reach out about how I can support scaling your Employee Resource Group (ERG) for more impact or in how I can help share the business case for creating an ERG.

These are the resources for this post, click on the links to learn more:

Resources:

Leanin.org 11th Annual Report 2025: Women In The Workplace

HBR Article: When Women Leaders Leave the Losses Multiply

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This time of year in Phoenix always brings up memories of Spring Training Baseball games. My first experience was decades ago when my boss invited my work-team out to a game. I was not all that thrilled. I had a lot to do and was not a big fan of baseball; it was one more thing getting in the way of my ability to get everything done.  Thankfully, I was talked into going and as I was enjoying the big blue sky, a cold beer and talking and laughing with my coworkers, I wondered how I possibly could have resisted it so much.

I am grateful for all the great bosses I’ve had in the past, those that knew we would accomplish more by taking a break. Those that knew how valuable and important it was to build connections with each other so that we could meet and exceed our business goals.

In her book, “The Gifts of Imperfection” Dr. Brené Brown explains, “…we are hard wired for connection. It’s in our biology…we need connection to thrive emotionally, physically, spiritually, and intellectually.” She explains that years ago this may have been perceived as “touchy-feely” but now we know it to be hard science that is backed up with Neuroscience research.

The research shows that having strong social connections leads to higher levels of physical, mental and emotional health. Who doesn’t want more of that on their team? Can you imagine saying, “Uh, no, I’d prefer to have a team of employees with physical, mental and emotional challenges…”

So, which game are you taking your team to? I hope to see you there.

Read more about research from Stanford University here: Social Connection Improves Physical Health and Mental and Emotional Well-Being. ” One landmark study showed that lack of social connection is a greater detriment to health than obesity, smoking and high blood pressure.”

photo credit: Tom Heinze via Flickr Creative Commons

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A few weeks ago, I posted about “Coaching Strong Leaders” and how being vulnerable increase your authenticity as a leader. Unfortunately, if done the wrong way it can backfire and do the opposite of what you intend. I once knew of  a leader who encouraged me and others to be more open and sharing and yet he did not demonstrate this at all. This made him come across as a hypocrite and undermined his trust with me and the rest of the team. In this great Harvard Business Review article, “Be Yourself, But Carefully” by Lisa Rosh and Lynn Offerman they call this type of leader a “Social Engineer” and explain that this is one of five different ways leaders that can mess up their ability to lead by not being self aware.

The article is worth the read if you want to learn more how to be a stronger leader, here’s a quick summary of the five step path they outline in the article:

1. Become more self aware. Blind spots and not understanding how your intentions are coming across can undermine any of your actions and decrease trust. Hire a Coach and have them help you do a 360 assessment.

2. Assess the relevance of your sharing to the task you are taking on. If you’re doing it to move a goal forward, great! If you’re doing it for self promotion, stop that!

3. Stick to the facts. It may be tempting to embellish the facts a bit to better fit the situation but this will cause more harm than good.

4. Know your culture. How do people operate in your company culture; observe the level of candor and align appropriately. It is especially important to adjust if in a global context, know if you’re dealing with collective (Japan, China) or individualistic (U.S. Europe) societies

5. Timing is important. If you share too much personal information too soon you’ll come across as awkward or worse yet, needy. “Intimate stories strengthen relationships; they don’t establish them.”

Here’s to programming your internalGPS to be a stronger, more vulnerable and more authentic leader!

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Pivotal Goal: Re-learn crocheting (I knew how to do it several decades ago) to expand my creativity, spend some more time with my Mom and help her get her mind off of her radiation treatment for breast cancer, and make some fun gifts for family and friends.

While I’m still on the path to accomplish all of those things, the bigger path I’m on right now is the path of learning how to fail and not give up. I have had to pull out the yarn of my project (a simple hat to get started) not once, not twice, but four times. So far. And I’ve really been trying hard. Paying close attention, counting each stitch, re-counting multiple times and yet I’ve messed it up a lot.

Failing and starting again with a renewed focus and no criticizing and shaming of past mistakes is a big challenge. It’s good to get this practice and see and feel how necessary it is to become better. Expecting to do it right and well the very first time when you are learning a new skill is a set up for a path that will not lead anywhere. I hear from clients, “Well if it doesn’t come easily then it must not be for me.” I disagree. Anyone who has put in years of practice in a skill will tell  you that it did not come easily at first. The more relevant questions are, “How does it make you feel? Are you excited to get started again and again? Or is it depleting you and no fun at all?”

If you want to be on the path to excellence then it better be in something that lights you up. I’m excited to see this finished crochet project, now if it were something else, like quilting, that does not excite me at all then I’d give up after the first fail.

What pivotal goal lights you up and will help you move your internalGPS forward toward your dreams?

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Earlier this week I did this with two volunteers at a speech I gave at a professional association conference. The volunteer with the twenty dollars offered two dollars. What would you say? Exactly, she said “No!” They both ended up with no money. In the study, about 50% offer ten dollars, everyone rejects an offer of three or less and most accept an offer of seven or more. This reflects our deeply held need for fairness. It’s human nature to reject an offer that is unfair even if it means you don’t end up with anything. It is sometimes easy to forget that people are often not logical, like machines, especially in a business environment that is focused on efficiency and continuous improvement.

When I coach people or conduct workshops I share studies like this to emphasize how important it is to take human needs or values into account. In that study, economists predicted that most people would offer one dollar, because that made logical sense, and boy were they ever wrong.

Deeply held human needs and values often defy logic, keep this in mind when you are programming your internalGPS for your journey that includes interacting with other humans (what journey doesn’t?).

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Hopefully you noticed that I’ve not been writing for several weeks. This was due to a broken right clavicle that stopped me from doing just about anything for a few weeks and I’ve been slowly coming back to functioning over the last week. Wow, did I ever find out how much I need and depend on the relationships in my life. I am so grateful for all the support I received and for this powerful reminder of what a myth it is that if you’re strong then you don’t need help. We all need help, sometimes things happen that show us how to better receive this help and practice asking for it. Ugh.

I love this article,“The 8 Traits of Healthy Relationships” by the very wise “Business Philosopher” Jim Rohn (he passed last year and his amazing work continues to be shared). His traits of Love, Serving Heart, Honest Communication, Friendliness, Patience, Loyalty, A Common Purpose, and Fun can all be applied to growing strong business and personal relationships so that your internalGPS guides you on amazing journeys.

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Mind mapping is a very versatile tool that I have found more effective than a traditional linear outline. I have used it for organizing a lot of data, planning out a speech or project, and brainstorming ideas to a problem. It is also a great tool for organizing notes from a book or article with the benefit of helping me remember the key points more easily. There are different software programs available; this is great article listing several, “Five Best Mind Mapping Tools” and I have found that using colored pens and a piece of paper the best tools for creating mine. The software is helpful if you are creating a map as a team and want the graphic up on the screen so that everyone can see (this is how I was first introduced to the tool, by one of my staff in my prior corporate role years ago).

What tools have you found useful in finding your way? Please share in a comment and give the mind map a try for assistance in programming your internalGPS!

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In my negotiations and influence workshops, I explain that a sense of belonging is one of the basic human needs that may be driving another person’s behavior or position that is motivating them to differ from what you want them to do. You can thrive and be more successful (at work and home) by enhancing your own sense of belonging and/or by creating an environment that encourages sharing and avoids people feeling left out.

Here are five common mistakes people make that can undermine a sense of belonging:

1. Assumptions. You assume they know you care about their opinion or that you want them to participate. Ask them to join you or ask them to voice their opinion if they are being quiet.

2. Stepping on others’ views. Interrupting someone who you disagree with or even when you do agree, can shut down their trust. Building a sense of trust that all opinions and view points are welcome adds to a strong sense of belonging. And this does not mean you need to agree with them; just that you are open to hearing other perspectives.

3. Silence. If it is clear that someone is sharing something difficult, of course take the time to listen, and then acknowledge their willingness to share. Expressing your gratitude for people speaking up builds an environment of inclusion and belonging.  You may want to make this even more explicit by sharing examples of how prior suggestions or disagreements were used to create a better solution.

4. Confusion or Lack of an Agenda. If it is a group activity or meeting then share the agenda and any pre-work ahead of time so that everyone is clear on the plans for the meeting and prepared to fully participate.

5. Critical Language. This can shut down a sense of belonging in seconds. Encourage candid conversations that are focused on curious inquiry for better win/win solutions rather than debates that are focused on win/lose outcomes.

How have you thrived and been more successful by cultivating your sense of belonging or by creating an inclusive environment? Please share in a comment.

photo via Flickr creative commons, credit to Daryl l

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Sometimes, in my preparations to give a speech, I catch myself in a spiral of concerns about whether the audience will like my points or if what I’m saying will resonate at all or if the information I share will be relevant enough for them and on and on. In the best of times, I catch the spiral before it goes too far down (it is never going up) and shift into reminding myself of other speeches that have gone very well and that it is really none of my business to be concerned with their reactions or judgment. My focus is on understanding the group’s needs from the meeting planner/coordinator and then taking the time to prepare a great speech that meets those needs.

You will thrive more if you first clearly understand the expectations of your assignment or project and then do your best to meet them. Your work may include asking for feedback and many other steps. Avoid projecting into the future and guessing about how you will be judged about the results. The more you can focus on doing your best in the current moment, the more the results will take care of themselves and the more productive you will be.  

Here’s to more thriving and less being stuck in judgment from others this week!

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Do you understand the messages you are sending with your eyes and how they impact your thriving? You may undermine your influence by focusing more on your electronic device or by looking down when you are forming your answer. If you hold direct eye contact you will come across as confident in your position (or whatever you are discussing), while if you pause and shift your gaze downward you will communicate weakness or disinterest. Also, if you continually focus on your phone or electronic tablet during a meeting, you will convey that the people in the room are not that important; this is magnified if you are a leader. I have coached executives on the message they are sending (“you’re not as important”) when they pay more attention to their phone/tablet than the person (or people) sitting in front of them.  This Wall Street Journal article, “Just Look Me in the Eye Already”  is a great quick read that explains how important eye contact is, especially in our increasingly virtual environment. Also, note the warnings about holding eye contact too long (to avoid the creepy look).

How will you use your eyes to thrive more this week? Please share your experience in a comment.

photo credit: Flicker creative commons, LifeSuperCharger

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