How diverse is your employee base?

People who are alike in education, experience, gender, age, ethnicity, and social background tend to have similar views about how the world works. They’ll probably have the same ideas about what is or is NOT possible.

Imagine a team where everyone had the skills to play the same position. For example, a baseball team where all the players were pitchers, a football team made up of quarterbacks or a soccer team with nothing but goalies. The players would all be great- and the team would be a disaster. Great teams have diversity among members with everyone contributing to the overall success.

Many companies currently have teams that are missing key players: women. The secret to your organization’s success is leveraging the women whose talent is not being used.

Gender differences = business success

Studies have repeatedly shown the more women on the Board of Directors, the better the corporate performance. A 2007 study by Catalyst (www.catalyst.org) found U.S. companies with the most women Directors had a ROE that was 53% higher than companies with the fewest (or no) women Directors. A 2007 McKinsey (www.mckinsey.com) study found that European companies with 3 or more women on the Board had 48% higher EBIT compared to the average of other companies in the same industry. Although no clear causal relationship can be determined, women in leadership and good business seem to go together. Help advance women in leadership to advance your company. Added benefit: establish your organization as an employer of choice for the increasingly globally, generationally, and intellectually diverse workplace.