The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil - Center for Work-Life Policy

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practices in Peru, where Citi’s offices represent a bigger market than they do in
Costa Rica. “The people in Peru were wonderful. They made it so easy for me to
work there,” she says. Rodriguez was able to bring what she learned back to Costa
Rica, and she credits her recent promotion to Systems VP to the Banker Mobility
Program.
The program’s first year saw eight participants. Maria Ordonez, HR Generalist
for Latin America, anticipates ten to twelve participants in 2010. Through the
program, participants improved both their managerial skills and their technical
skills. After the program, participants work with their managers to keep up the
skills they have learned and continue to make progress on their goals.
IBM: Building Relationships and Influence
Five years ago, bolstered by an advisee’s thesis work on barriers to women’s
advancement, IBM executive Liz Brown launched what she hoped would help
break down those barriers: an intensive 2.5-day seminar for rising stars in the
firm’s Europe-based consulting business. From that modest beginning, Building
Relationships and Influence emerged—an award-winning program with more than
1,000 alumnae that is changing the lives of IBM women in 29 countries today.
“It’s so much more than a class,” explains Leslie Goldenberg, who leads and
has implemented the program in Brazil, China, India, Korea, Mexico, and the
U.S. “The program enables women to personally address factors that may affect
their advancement, including sponsorship. They acquire the skills and support to
influence changes for themselves.”
Typically one part of a broader leadership development program, the initiative
targets high-potential women who are one or two jobs away from an executive
appointment. Once tapped, they consult one-on-one with an alumna of the
program, and then join 17 other participants and three facilitators (one of whom
is an alum) for a three-day intensive coaching experience. The core instruction,
provided by senior leadership-development professionals, focuses on nurturing
leadership and networking skills—“understanding your personal power,” as
Goldenberg says—but includes modules on goal setting, personal branding, and
executive presence. Video exercises and peer feedback reinforce the learnings.
“There are no PowerPoints,” Goldenberg clarifies. “The women are not only
building their influencing skills, but practicing a whole range of leadership models
in a group whose support is likely to be ongoing.”
One big challenge for many women is overcoming their distaste for
networking. In Brazil, as in India, forming instrumental relationships is viewed
negatively by some men and women, according to Goldenberg. “We pretty much
have to say, ‘To get ahead, you have to be visible, and to be visible you have to
network.” The personal nature of the program, she adds, helps effect that shift
in mindset. Once they understand the importance of creating a network of both
mentors and sponsors, the women write out a strategic plan identifying whom they
plan to target, how they will reach them, and how they’ll persuade them of their
worthiness as a protégé.
One of the key features of the program is giving the women an immediate
opportunity to deploy their new skills with senior management. An executive
sponsor—IBM’s regional general manager for a business unit, for example—will
kick off the session, explaining the business purpose, and then also attend a
networking dinner with two other executive speakers (a man and a woman) who
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