The executive shared advice for young women aspiring to leadership positions in this traditionally male-dominated segment. By Damian Martinez, journalist at G&M News.
Can you describe the genesis of Insight Global’s Women’s Leadership Council and the specific goals you’ve set to empower female leaders within the company?
The Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) was formed to further Insight Global‘s commitment to the strategic advancement and retention of women in leadership. I currently head the external engagement subcommittee within our West Coast division. With a mission to live out our Shared Values through the unique lens of women, our Women’s Leadership Council has an integral impact on the company’s success. The WLC is made up of almost 400 powerhouse members ranging from first-year employees to Regional Managers and Vice Presidents. As an organization that is 65% women, it is essential that we empower our women to bring their perspectives to the table, help solve tough problems, and to lead others. The WLC is comprised of 12 regional divisional councils and is governed by an Executive Council, all run by senior female leaders. The WLC also provides mentorship and networking opportunities and hosts regular forums throughout the year. One of the first massive issues the WLC tackled was developing a parental leave support program to ensure our sales employees were supported while out of the office spending precious time with their new families. This included identifying a dedicated support team to ensure business is maintained, or ideally grows, during leave. That work became the foundation for what our Parental Leave program is today. We’re proud to report that the attrition rate for women who have gone through our Parental Leave program is only 6%; for context, the national average is approximately 17%. Additionally, the attrition rate for members of the WLC is less than 7%. We also fundraised over USD 200,000 from 2022-2023 for Insight Global’s “Be The Light Fund” to back our partnerships with philanthropy initiatives tailored to supporting our women.
Having served as the President of Women in Sports & Events (WISE) Las Vegas, what skills from that experience have you brought to your role at Insight Global?
The WISE mission is to empower women with the tools to reach their career goals. Through peer support, mentoring programs, and professional development and training, we strive to help members maximize their potential, sharpen their skills, and advance their careers at every stage of their professional journeys. I strongly believe in the power of this organization because I’ve experienced incredible professional development firsthand. Since 2022, I’ve served as the WISE Las Vegas chapter spokesperson, legal authorization, and principal point of contact between the Chapter and the public, Nationals, and membership base responsible for ensuring alignment to the mission and owning our plan of action for delivering programs and services to membership. WISE Las Vegas is a fully volunteer organization. As President of our chapter over the last 2+ years, I’ve been responsible for all strategic and operational oversight while leading a board of 16 Officers and Directors ranging from Manager to C-suite in their day jobs. The organization was still young when I became President so there has also been a lot of foundational process build out, establishment of brand identity and awareness, finessing of organizational structure, and strategic planning for long-term growth, success, and scalability. It’s been an amazing and beautifully challenging journey. I’m excited to end my term knowing I’ve increased our average signature event and sponsorship revenue by over 50% with my vision and leadership, and I look forward to continuing to support the chapter’s evolution as I move on to start our Advisory Board. These skills and insights I’ve gained have been paramount to my career trajectory at Insight Global; this external professional and leadership development has played a significant role in my confident, strategic, and successful ability to build a nascent, innovative division within my company. Additionally, I’ve been able to take this expertise and apply it as a startup board advisor.
What have been some of the proudest accomplishments of your career?
With WISE Las Vegas, my proudest accomplishment is absolutely leading the inception of our inaugural ‘Women of Inspiration’ event. In 2023, for International Women’s Day, I established a co-brand partnership with another nonprofit I hold leadership positions in, Global Gaming Women (GGW), and we hosted the event at Allegiant Stadium, the highest grossing entertainment venue in the world at the time. The event was the first of its kind celebrating and recognizing women at the complementary overlap of the gaming and sports industries in Las Vegas due to the recent legalization of sports betting and all the professional sports teams moving to our city. I loved bringing that vision to life with such an amazing team, and I look forward to witnessing the event continue to grow and recognize more legendary women in the coming years. Our ‘2024 Women of Inspiration’ event will be held at the iconic Las Vegas Aces Headquarters, the first professional women’s facility of its kind and the home of Las Vegas’ first professional championship team, and we’ve already more than quadrupled our fundraising efforts from 2023. At Insight Global, my proudest accomplishment is creating and developing our External Events division from scratch. I proposed the role to our CEO after experiencing the incredible ROI potential of strategic industry engagement through external events, but also noticing the opportunity for improvement since we didn’t have an existing sales and marketing strategy in this area at the time. I’ve built out a strategic framework for Insight Global with the mission of empowering our sales teams and elevating the company’s brand through industry and networking events, partnerships, and ROI optimization. The results have been exciting so far and I can’t wait to continue scaling and evolving my division. I’ve loved combining my favorite disciplines of business development, events, and marketing into revenue generating strategies. I also love the power in nuanced, intentional positioning that successfully yields desired outcome. It’s so fun and fulfilling to take unique visions to life and create experiences, partnerships, and campaigns that bring people together and make a positive impact.
What are some key leadership qualities you believe future female leaders should develop to succeed in both traditional and evolving industries?
I believe all future leaders, regardless of gender, should intentionally develop a few key traits to succeed in their careers. I can mention the following: 1) Owning an intentional and authentic personal brand that demonstrates expertise and credibility. Key word: authentic. Identify the throughlines in your experience, values, passions, etc. and lead with this throughout your career; 2) Confidence in professional networking skills. Your professional relationships are a valuable currency in the business world that can lead to unexpected opportunities, pivotal mentorship guidance, and many additional career advancement possibilities; 3) Strong public speaking skills to foster effective executive presence and a positive industry reputation. This will also strengthen communication skills in general for enhanced leadership and ability to set a vision for execution; 4) Comfort with failure. Success comes from progress over perfection. The best leaders know that failure is inevitable and the catalyst for growth. Fail fast, fail forward, and take feedback and learning lessons as a gift, and 5) Proactive autonomy. Leaders don’t just sit around until they’re given direction or an answer, they figure it out. This is crucial for innovation, performance, confidence, and trust from employers/clients. There are many other traits I believe to be important, but those would be my top five.
What unique challenges do women still face in leadership positions today?
Women still only make up less than 30% of C-suite positions. Lean In has coined the term “the broken rung” describing their research findings of progress at the top being constrained by early inequality; while gender equity is relatively even at the entry-level, a gap starts at the management level, and the number of women decreases at every subsequent level up into the C-suite. We have more than a 50% chance of being sexually harassed in the workplace; this is a conservative estimate as most negative encounters of unwanted attention go unreported. Women are paid on average 84 cents for every dollar paid to men, with even greater disparities for women of color. Unconscious gender bias: for example, being labeled as “aggressive” for the same qualities that would be considered “assertive” when describing a man. We are 20% less likely to receive actionable feedback, and eight times more likely to receive feedback on our personality than men. Competence based micro-aggressions such as having our judgment questioned in our area of expertise or being interrupted or spoken over more than others.
What advice would you offer to young women aspiring to advance in traditionally male-dominated industries?
Find, join, and get involved in membership associations with the mission of advancing women in their respective industry. In our industry specifically, Global Gaming Women (GGW) is the leading organization in this space with the mission of supporting, inspiring, and influencing the development of women in the gaming industry. GGW offers high-impact educational programs, mentorship opportunities, and networking events for our base of over 7,000 active members. For women in our industry who touch on sports and sports betting, Women in Sports & Events (WISE) is another great membership association. Additionally, be intentional about seeking mentors and sponsors, but keep in mind it doesn’t need to be an official mentorship/sponsorship program or relationship to be impactful. My most impactful mentors/sponsors have come from organic networking relationships with no formal cadence, expectation, or agenda.
