Women Leading Workplace®: A Preview

Most workplaces have good intentions when it comes to women in leadership. They have the right policies, programmes, and often the right people championing the cause. Or they want to include more women in their leadership roles, but don’t have the financial or people resources to support the work needed.

What we see - still - is an underrepresentation of women in leadership roles; representation data not reflecting the pipeline behind it; or genuine inclusion in spaces of decision making and power - meaning leadership teams miss out on the real benefits of diverse lived experiences.

There are a number of reasons for this. Workplaces are time poor and resource constrained; leaders championing this work don't know where to invest; and it's easier to focus on what looks good - and builds your employment brand - rather than deep (expensive and time consuming) cultural change.

But what if there was another way? Where you know what will make a difference in your workplace; where your brand matches the experiences of the women who work for you; and you make meaningful - globally benchmarked and evidence based - progress towards equal representation of women in leadership in your leadership roles, and keep them there.

I've spent the last several years developing a tool to do this. The Women Leading Workplace® Assessment draws on my PhD research, New Zealand survey data, and globally recognised benchmarks to measure the specific conditions that determine whether women progress into leadership - or don't. This webinar is a first look at what I've built, why, and what it could mean for your organisation.

What we'll explore:

• Why so many well-resourced organisations are still not making progress and what the research reveals about the gap between intent and impact.

• The New Zealand data behind the Women Leading Workplace® Assessment and what it shows about where organisations are genuinely succeeding.

• A preview of the benchmarks, the indicators of whether women do have opportunities to progress into leadership in your organisation.

• What the assessment involves and what organisations receive.

• How to be involved in what comes next.

This is for you if: You're a people and culture, HR, OD, or leadership development leader who wants an evidence-based way to understand where your organisation actually stands, and how to shift it. Or you're a CEO or senior leader who wants to know what a rigorous, targeted path forward looks like.

This is a 60-minute webinar with Q&A. It will be recorded and a link sent to all registered participants after the event.

About Dr Amanda Sterling

Amanda Sterling is a principal Director and an award-winning consultant who partners with organisations to remove barriers for women into leadership and create inclusive workplaces where people and businesses thrive. Her research-grounded frameworks highlight the challenges women continue to experience as well as the systemic shifts needed to increase representation and inclusion. She is the Founder of the Four Factors for Women© and the Women Leading Workplace© Assessment.

Amanda combines her decades of experience working in corporate leadership development and culture change, as well as deep expertise on leadership, gender, and inclusion, to help organisations attract and retain more women in leadership and close their gender pay gaps. Her work on pathways for women into governance have included projects for the Ministry for Women (Board Connector) as well as her Four Factors© for women on boards.

Amanda is recognised as a thought leader on women in leadership. Her groundbreaking PhD research (completed in 2023) revealed critical insights into what is still holding women back from leadership roles. Her subsequent Women in Leadership: Insights to Impact report highlighted the systemic changes needed and solutions for workplaces. Her work has been featured by HRNZ, Institute of Directors, NBR, NZ Herald, Herald NOW, RNZ, Capsule NZ, MediaWorks radio, NewsHub, The Press, The Dominion Post, and NewsTalkZB, as well as Global Women and the University of Auckland.

Amanda is originally from the Kaipara region but has called Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland home for the last 20 years. She is also a proud parent to one son.