4 Keys To Women’s Career Success – From The General Motors Chief Diversity Officer

Though women’s employment has picked up since the “she-cession” of the pandemic— when millions of women quit their jobs in part to help their kids with remote schooling— it has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels across the nation, according to a new analysis of employment data by Stateline.

In areas where white-collar, knowledge-based jobs abound that lend themselves easily to remote or hybrid work, women have done much better, such as in the Northeast and West Coast, the study found. But in largely manufacturing-based areas, such as the Midwest where companies like General Motors are based, “women hold almost 800,000 fewer jobs than before the pandemic.” What’s worse, mothers of small children lag behind fathers of small children in returning to the workforce, at 68.6% vs. 90% respectively.

Part of the problem is the lack of childcare support in this country, as we all know. While legislation languishes amidst partisan squabbles in Congress, some employers are stepping up. General Motors includes child care support in their benefits package, according to their website, along with other family-related benefits.

It’s about who they want to be at work and advancement

Beyond family issues, women are also taking the time to consider their careers more deliberately, including where they can advance and the kind of environment they want to work in. Women want to make a difference being who they are, according to a study my firm did a couple of years ago that found “idealism” as one of the top drivers of women achievers.

I recently interviewed Telva McGruder, the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer of General Motors and a 28-year veteran of GM who started as an engineer, for my Electric Ladies Podcast. She explained that in today’s values and innovation-driven economy, there are attributes that fuel advancement beyond just being very good at your job.

McGruder has held a wide range of roles at GM, from leading facility engineering for the GM global footprint and facility management strategy for North American manufacturing, to being Program Manager for Global Body Manufacturing Engineering, and climbing the ladder at several manufacturing locations.

Here are four keys to career success McGruder highlighted:

1. Self-awareness: “Sit and breathe and figure out, ‘Who am I? What works well for me?’ and always work from that center,” she explained. Self-awareness is key to success in any field at any level. It’s about being honest with yourself, taking constructive feedback, reading the room, and maybe getting coaching to help you see how other people see you and feel around you.

2. Adaptability: During the pandemic, GM pivoted some of its manufacturing plants to make ventilators – very quickly – which had a profound and lasting impact on the company, especially as they transform their operations to only manufacture electric vehicles, McGruder said. One result is that now adaptability is a priority in recruiting and promoting talent going forward. “We're not only looking for the skillset, but we're looking for adaptability. We're looking for collaborators,” she said. “Talent…that we're confident can evolve with us, that can grow with us and grow really quickly.”

3. Managing conflict: “Moving at ventilator speed” to build ventilators during the pandemic to save as many lives as possible, McGruder said, ushered in a culture change at GM that strengthened their ability to entertain new ideas and manage conflicts constructively. McGruder attributed this in part to having a diverse, inclusive workplace, and added that “it doesn't mean we're skipping through the daisies and always getting along and never disagreeing with each other and having perfect compromises.”

She described what happens this way: “When we have an environment that's truly inclusive and people have a true sense of belonging, we are going to disagree with each other. But…those disagreements are the fuel for the future, right. Where someone speaks up and they say, ‘I'm not sure if that's right.’ And the other person says, ‘help me understand why you're saying that.’”

She emphasized that, “that's how conflict can fuel innovation and conflict can fuel solutions that really aren't on the table of imagination before the conflict occurs.”

4. Make a difference: McGruder emphasized that career success fundamentally depends on your ability to make a difference for the organization you work in and the people you work with. “I started working on (this) many years ago, when I realized that as a technical leader, I could solve all the technical problems in the world, but there were a lot of days where I still had people around me that weren't necessarily super-excited about being at work, that weren't necessarily, you know, really bringing their best to work every day.” She realized that if she couldn’t help her teams, she wasn’t going to be successful herself, so she focused on helping them succeed.

As our ideas about how to “make a living” evolve with our ideas about “making a difference,” these four keys could apply to any choices we make.

Listen to the full interview with Telva McGruder on Electric Ladies Podcast here and read her suggestions for how to make a difference here.