Honing Leadership Skills for High-Potential Leaders of Color

One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies that develops and markets prescription drugs, vaccines, biologic therapies, and animal health products for the global marketplace understood that its talent pool needed to better represent its diverse group of customers and patients.

The company is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion in all aspects of its global business and considers diversity in management, both from a gender and racial/ethnic perspective, a key performance indicator and tracks its progress in this area. Company data revealed an opportunity to improve diversity at higher levels of the organization.

The company sought to create a leadership development experience that would prepare high-potential African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian American leaders for senior leadership positions. The organization also wanted to help prospective senior leaders of color develop stronger networks inside the company to build a culture of inclusion.

Solution

The company partnered with CCL to develop the Diverse Leadership Program (DLP). The program aimed to help participants focus on 4 key leadership competencies critical for success within the organization, using the acronym PINS.

P – Developing effective leadership presence
I – Understanding the power of influence and building strategic relationships inside the organization
N – Learning to develop and leverage strategic networks across divisions and functions
S – Deepening self-awareness to strengthen presence, emotional intelligence, relationships, and leadership skills

A team of CCL experts collaborated with the company to create and facilitate a leadership development experience for cohorts of 25-30 high-potential African America, Latino/Hispanic, and Asian American leaders.

The initiative included 2 on-site experiences and numerous additional touchpoints to develop relationships with senior company leaders. Participants took part in virtual/remote learning, experiential activities, small team collaboration, and coaching delivered by our coaches.

CCL facilitators sought to create a psychologically safe environment for participants, which research has shown to be critical for high-performance teams. Senior executives were frequently present during the face-to-face experience, but facilitators designated parts of the program for participants and facilitators only to create psychological safety and foster candid discussions.

The experience also included innovative learning methods. For example, an artificial intelligence-based tool provided realistic, tailored feedback to participants as they practiced presentations – critical to developing executive presence.

In addition to sharpening their own leadership skills, participants also learned from each other to understand how their diverse peers with different racial/ethnic backgrounds successfully influenced the culture at the organization to provide the full potential of diversity through the benefit of accumulated knowledge.

Results

The high-potentials selected for the experience said it made them better leaders and prepared them to advance within the company.

In addition, there’s evidence the program was effective at preparing participants for senior leadership positions. Within a few months of completing the experience, 8 of 26 participants received promotions to executive director level — a 30% promotion rate, and higher than the promotion rate for the overall key talent pool at the company.

Reprinted with Permission from Center for Creative Leadership 2023