At the Massachusetts Conference for Women, Doris Kearns Goodwin relayed a story about Eleanor Roosevelt who was the first First Lady to hold routine press conferences — but Eleanor added a restriction: only female reporters could attend. Because of this caveat, many curmudgeonly male editors across the country were forced to diversify their workforce, often for the first time.
At the same conference, Admiral Michelle Howard recounted how her supervisor intentionally sought to add women and people of color in the entry-level administrative or assistant roles, not because they were lofty positions, rather because it gave those folks exposure to how the system worked and gave them experience to apply for higher positions someday.
All of us, in our own spheres of influence, have the obligation to create opportunities for others. Can you invite people to shadow you to gain exposure to operations that can benefit them later? Is there a way to expand your talent pool to include those without the direct experience normally hired into your roles? Maybe you could restructure your hierarchy to provide more deputy or entrée positions that could feed your leadership pipeline with diverse perspectives? Or could you perhaps mentor someone and help boost their confidence?
The more doors we help to open, the bigger our world becomes.
