Capital Group’s low attrition rate, especially among senior leaders, limits opportunities to advance. Coupled with low levels of diversity in the organization’s senior leadership ranks, we realized there was an urgent need to engage and advance women leaders throughout the organization.

To address this challenge, Capital Group’s Talent Development (TD) leaders created a targeted leadership development program in partnership with Harvard University called Women Leading Capital (WLC). This dynamic program for high-potential women focuses on building leadership capabilities and forging impactful relationships with influential senior leaders and peers throughout the organization.

Key defining features of the program include:

• Each participant is paired with an advocate within the same reporting line or business unit — senior leaders who have influence in talent conversations. Advocates work with their participants’ managers to champion the best development opportunities, which increases accountability.
• Participants’ managers are expected to be actively involved in their direct reports’ development and provide coaching.
• Peer teams discuss provocative issues — both external and internal to the business — to explore challenges from a woman’s perspective.
• Clearly defined roles are set to ensure alignment of expectations for all parties involved to guarantee strong outcomes from these relationships.

Forty-four percent of WLC participants made lateral or upward career moves within the organization in the year following the program. It’s also had a striking impact on participants’ ability to express key leadership competencies, with senior leaders observing an 86% improvement in participants’ leadership behaviors.

Jim Evans