About Last Night: Men’s Role in Women’s Success

Last night Costanoa had the pleasure of hosting 200 people at Seat @ the Table, an event where we had an accomplished panel of woman at each level of management share their experiences about advocacy, bias, best advice, and failure. These are some of the brightest and most successful women we know, and while they shared many great insights and traits, the one that surprised me most was this: 100% of their advocates were men.

That’s right. These highly successful women were all pushed-up and bettered by male advocates who saw, appreciated and developed their potential.

An advocate is someone at work in a more advanced position who helps someone else climb the career ladder. When I talked about the panel’s unilaterally male support system with two women VP’s today, we discussed how it is well known that men are a crucial part of helping women progress in their careers. But seeing it literally play out on a stage shed fresh light on the issue for me. Not enough men metabolize the implications of the role they play in progressing the status quo nor are there enough explicit conversations about it. I say this as someone who has likewise only had male advocates and deeply appreciates them.

So consider this an invitation if you believe we all benefit from having more diversity of perspectives at every level of management: if you’re a man in a company with women working there, ask what you’re doing to advocate for them, because they simply won’t progress on and up without you doing something about it.