What skills do you need to advance beyond the middle management/roles in an organization? Right after you think about that, consider the skills we typically talk about when we say we want to help women advance.

If you are wondering what that 33% is and its relative importance, you have guessed rightly that it's critical and that managers and leaders rarely consider it when it comes to coaching women.

That green box represents business, strategic, and financial acumen. It means having the ability and gaining the experience to understand where the business is going, to scan the industry and market to find opportunities and uncover threats, and to be financially savvy about the other two — and our role in taking the organization there.

It may be a simple concept, yet unless we become aware of the biases that keep us stuck into the other two boxes, we will not be guided into positions of impact, nor receive the informal mentoring we need to achieve parity in career opportunity.

To achieve better alignment — as in everyone pulling in the same direction:

• boards should expect proportional succession pools (does your company have a succession plan at all?)
• CEOs should expect the same as Boards and question how the organization they lead is going to help bridge that gap
• HR executives should make sure that missing 33% is properly emphasized
• managers should examine their mindsets about women and men and career success

Watch this short video by Susan Colantuono to get the full story.

An idea worth spreading.