Forbes Insights Futures In Focus is about tomorrow’s world and how visionaries and leaders are thinking about it, helping us design for it, and guiding us towards it so that we can thrive. Nothing is certain about the future except the need to design differently for it than the world we live in today. Host is Michael Gale, best-selling author of The Digital Helix.
This conversation occurred before Covid-19 in the US. Its ideas and messages feel even more appropriate than before with Anne’s focus on inclusion and diversity at its core. One thing that especially makes Anne stand out is the description of herself in her LinkedIn profile: Transformation executive, servant leader, diversity & inclusion champion, culture expert, and blogger.
AT&T’s construct of rotating executives is not unheard of elsewhere, but it is still very common in most global leading brands. While AT&T is significantly ahead of its peer competitors there is still some way to go to have women and women of color properly represented in the halls of executive leadership. Anne’s own journey to be the CEO of a unit that would in itself be a Fortune 50 company should serve as a shining example of what is possible with some key variables.
Think of these four facts and how they are going to affect our futures and our, future leaders.
In 2019 29% of management roles were held by women even although 50% of the workforce is female.
Only 1 in 5 people on boards are female. For multicultural women, this statistic plummets to just 1 in 25. Yet by 2060 (a little out of the range of this podcast but one many of us will be around for) 50% of the US population will be women of diverse color.
Anne’s journey and advice should serve as a beacon to all of us.
