The Future of LGBTQ+ Leadership: The London Business School Program Creating a New Pathway to the Top

London Business School has just launched a new LGBTQ+ Executive Leadership Program, designed to propel participants to becoming the next top leaders in our society. myGwork spoke to Aneeta Rattan, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Aharon Cohen Mohliver, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, who developed the program together.

They’ve brought their skills together and will be delivering it alongside multiple other faculty members, representing the top experts in their field. The program challenges the lack of LGBTQ+ representation in leadership and will equip participants with the tools and network that they need to truly succeed.

Can you tell us a bit more about the program?

Aneeta: The LGBTQ+ Executive Leadership Program is focused on trying to bridge a profound representation issue that we observe in business, but also beyond business throughout the world of leadership. The goal is to try and support highly effective LGBTQ+ leaders who are out there and have over eight years of experience in management, and to help project them to the very top echelons of leadership where we observe that LGBTQ+ individuals are dramatically under-represented.

The way we’ve constructed this program is to take the core fundamental leadership content that we at London Business School (LBS) think is essential for every leader. So, we’ve taken our best leadership development content and we’ve pulled it together with additional perspectives specialized for an LGBTQ+ participant group.

We aim to discuss how leadership intersects with our participants’ lived experiences, and to help them strategize how to manage who they want to be in a world that may not be ready or used to seeing people like them in those spaces.

The second thing we’ve done is to build the community part of our programs because we know networks are essential. And we also know how important it is for us to learn from each other’s experiences. In this program, we grew the community side of it, not just among our participants themselves, but also through a network of senior leaders who will be coming into the program to give guest lectures. The reality is, there are probably very few other spaces that LGBTQ+ leaders get to feel like their experience is the norm. And we think at LBS we can help create that space so conversations that don’t otherwise happen can occur.

What was the motivation behind creating this program?

Aharon: Aneeta and I were walking in Regent’s Park and talking about what can we do to address LGBTQ+ representation in leadership. And we started gathering research done by our colleagues here at LBS that is relevant to LGBTQ+ individuals and started talking about gaps that exist in the labor market. We found that LBS was doing relevant research which we collected, but this didn’t seem enough.

What I’ve seen throughout my 15 years in academia, which is encouraging, is that the gaps which used to exist for the typical MBA graduate, where LGBTQ+ individuals were vastly under-represented have started to shrink quite substantially. But there’s a persistent gap at the top: leadership by people who are either LGBTQ+ and not out or just not represented in the senior leadership of companies.

And that’s a very tough nut to crack, right? There are many support organizations and networks for lower-level positions, but we found very few, almost none, that will help people who are a step below the C-level and just about to enter those really big roles.

So, we thought that the best impact we could hope to make is by helping people progress to the top level of their organization. Because we know that’s how change happens.

Who would be a good fit for the program and what are you looking for in candidates?

Aneeta: The ideal candidate is someone who identifies as LGBTQ+ and has had over eight years of management experience. Someone ready to imagine taking the leap into the next level of leadership, whether that is moving from leading a set of technical experts into moving into more general management, or whether that is jumping up into the top suite of leadership within their organization.

The reason we emphasize this is because the program is highly participatory and experiential. Participants are learning theory that represents the most important ideas that they must understand for their leadership, but really, what they’re doing is they’re engaging in practical application. The goal of the program is to push individuals to contend with themselves, with who they want to be, and then how they’re seen by the world. We do that through the content, but also through executive coaching.

So, we want people to come into the program who feel ready to do the hard work of self-examination and also have an incredibly clear vision of wanting to move forward, even if they’re not yet sure where that move would be. At the very end of the program, they will be sharing their self-visions, which includes not just their goals and their plans, but also the impact that they seek to have.

What can participants expect to get out of the program?

Aneeta: In terms of the leadership content, what we’ve done is to examine what happens to leaders who might be doing well in their careers, who might have been advancing steadily up to this point, and who suddenly find themselves either plateauing or struggling to be seen as the person that the company wants to pull up to the next level. So, all of our teaching content is crafted around providing our participants with insights into why that happens, and then exercises, activities, and coaching to ensure this doesn’t happen to them. Of course, it’s not all down to the individual to change structural problems – and we talk about that, and how to handle and challenge the very real structural issues that do exist.

The specific topics we’ll be covering range from leadership development, executive derailment, building self-awareness, and using concrete assessments. We have sessions on networking so that participants can better understand their networks, and then also understand the forces that they might be up against which are shaping the networks.

We have sessions on organizational culture because to embody top leadership, you have to understand the culture and know-how to engage with it, but then also improve it if it needs improving. And then, because all of the participants in this program are LGBTQ+ leaders, it cannot be understated how much they can serve as changemakers and role models for their organizations. We also have a session on leading diversity in organizations, which is the topic that I study. And that session is to give an empirical basis to their understanding of the challenges that organizations face when it comes to diversity in terms of LGBTQ+ identities, but also drawing in all of the other identities that integrate with those so gender, race, disability status, first-generation status, etc.

We are giving participants a foundational understanding of those topics, and then providing them with the insights they would need to start thinking about how they could lead change if they want to.

Aharon: These sound a little bit like two pillars, right? We’re giving something to the individuals and then, through this, something that affects change within the organization. But they’re essentially one and the same.

By helping people advance throughout the organization, they are becoming agents of change. And by explicitly knowing what to do to make this visible, accepting, and inclusive, they are enacting change.

What is more unique about this type of program is that we know networks matter; networks matter within the organization, but outside the organization as well.

These types of networks are based on shared experiences. So, when we built this program, we explicitly have points of contact throughout where we have a lot of networking opportunities with people who have been huge supporters of this program but they’re too senior to join the program. They’re already CEOs or C-level. They overcame the obstacles and reached that level, and now they want to support others. These are networks that are extremely hard to build, but they can create and foster much stronger ties.

Have you faced any challenges in developing this training program?

Aneeta: The only thing I would mention is that in the months we’ve been crafting and publicizing the program, we have had nothing but overwhelmingly positive responses, which are sometimes then not followed by actions.

And so, what I would say is that if reading about or hearing about this program makes you feel energized, then you’ve got to put that energy to good use. Even if you don’t know someone who could be a participant in this program, either as a member of the community or who might just be at the wrong level right now or as an ally, what can you do to help spread the word and help raise awareness about the issues we’ve talked about? Because it’s a fundamental truth that every one of us can take everyday actions to create, change, and create progress on these issues.

What are some of the organizational benefits that come out of the program?

Aharon: I’m a strategy researcher, so I study organizations and I can tell you that the “low hanging fruit” here is quite simply unlocking talent companies already have among their ranks.

We don’t have much research specifically on LGBTQ+ leadership talent in organizations. But we do have research from other settings where there is still a lot of talent, for example women in organization. And what this research finds is that where there is untapped potential – for example in Korean organizations that aren’t using all the skills that they can from these women, international organizations can move in and benefit hugely, because they have access to this talent that is being underutilized so they have better and more productive firms. I am sure we have a very similar situation happening with LGBTQ+ individuals in senior leadership in organizations today.

Aneeta: Another top benefit to companies is that there are great people who are going to get even better and be all the more ready to jump up to the next level of leadership. And we’re living in a time where we see, very visibly, how critical leadership is, both for the well-being of the people in a company and also for the well-being of the company as a whole.

So, number one, this program is helping great leaders to become exceptional. Number two is that this program benefits organizations because it gives companies a chance to stop talking and start doing. And, as someone who identifies as an ally (I’m not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, but I am someone who spent decades studying diversity), I can tell you that a lot of companies are out there espousing their value of LGBTQ+ individuals. They are painting a lot of things with rainbows, but those actions have not yielded the kind of change that they need to happen when it comes to their leadership. And so, what I would say is, if companies genuinely have these values, this program is one of their best chances to not just prove that, but to live by that.

And the third thing that I would emphasize is that, and it is pretty unequivocal these days, to recognize the incredibly profound and transformative role that business can play in society. If you just look at the anti-LGBTQ+ efforts being made globally and the impact that business can make when it speaks out on these issues, it is an amazing source of power. I firmly believe that every cisgender heterosexual leader out there needs to seize every opportunity they have to put forward a proactive and positive message that they wholeheartedly embrace the LGBTQ+ community. Not just in a supportive manner, but in a manner that shows their equality and full humanity.

I believe the top leaders of companies should be embracing programs such as these. They should be searching their ranks for people who they can send on programs like this because it is actually cisgendered heterosexual people’s job, our job, to fix the problem of bias, of dehumanization, and the problem of oppression that they have historically created and perpetuated. I believe that one of the best benefits to companies is that it can allow their leaders to engage in the kind of transformative, anti-oppressive action that they are so well poised to do.

Aharon: If you go to the top universities around the world now, students doing their undergrad and masters have internalized these values. So, if you want to be the company that hires talent with these values, where people will be happy and want to contribute, you need to take concrete actions. It’s not enough to slap a rainbow flag on something in June.

What advice would you give to LGBTQ+ professionals wanting to take the next step as leaders?

Aharon: For LGBTQ+ leaders who are looking to make the next leap in their leadership journey, our program provides the ability to really understand yourself. And the other is the ability to understand your company. The reality for many LGBTQ+ individuals is that by understanding themselves and understanding their company better, they might identify misalignments that could fail to support their potential. And that’s why the third pillar of our program is the network that we help people build and the community that we bring together – people who can help them navigate those challenges and still rise to the top to achieve their leadership goals. If someone cannot come to our program, apply anyway, we’re going to try and find ways to help people join us no matter what. Really, all of us could use time and guidance in thinking about those three pieces of our lives; you as an individual, your identity as a leader, and your goals and values. Ask yourself, how can you align those three? Because when those three are aligned, that’s when you are on a trajectory toward success.

Find out more about the LGBTQ+ Executive Leadership Program.