How can leaders best promote and recruit qualified women at the highest levels? - SmartBrief

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How can leaders best promote and recruit qualified women at the highest levels?

2 min read

Management

The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Read previous SmartBlogs posts by YEC.

Q. What is one thing I can do to ensure that we are actively promoting and/or recruiting qualified women to higher levels in our organization?

1. Reach out

With all of the social tools and professional networks at our disposal, you can virtually trip over great talent and reach out to them. A surprising number of the workforce is willing to make a job change for the right reasons. Give them those reasons. — Maren Hogan, Red Branch Media

2. Be gender-blind

I’m not a huge believer in a gender-balanced workplace just for the sake of having it. As an employer, the most important thing to me is getting the job done as well as humanly possible. The women working for Cyber Superpowers all demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they were the best candidates for the job, and the ones who work at the higher levels expressed interest and passion in doing so. — Travis Steffen, Cyber Superpowers

3. Focus on unity

When it comes to recruiting entry-level basis or promoting from within, you should always be approaching this decision with a “United We Stand” approach. Gender issues are still prevalent, and it’s best that you don’t pretend they don’t exist. Simply resolve the issue by focusing more on equality and unity than division. It doesn’t hurt to have a female-friendly benefits program, too. — Rob Fulton, Matikis

4. Give them opportunity

As female founders of Hukkster, we’re dedicated to empowering young women to realize their professional potential and we work hard to lead by example. Moreover, we’re dedicated to providing all of our employees with the opportunity to succeed, regardless of gender. — Erica Bell, Hukkster

5. Teach self-promotion

Women tend to be less likely to let you know what they’ve done because they think it’s a “waste of time” or overly self promotional. Explaining to them that you want to know what they’re working on and giving them a format, such as a weekly email update, can help them promote themselves in an appropriate way. — Elizabeth Saunders, Real Life E