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| | Brought to you by Alex Panas, global leader of industries, & Axel Karlsson, global leader of functional practices and growth platforms
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| | | | The glass ceiling has long been considered the main barrier to women’s advancement into senior leadership. But McKinsey research reveals that women encounter a “broken rung” on the corporate ladder much earlier in their careers, when they are less likely than men to be promoted to their first manager role. In 2024, for instance, only 81 women were promoted to manager for every 100 men. How can women transcend this broken rung and make the most of their opportunities to advance? This week, we look at steps women can take to gain the critical experience needed to win at work and to narrow the gender gap. | | | | | | | |
| | | For both men and women, roughly half of their lifetime earnings are based on their natural talents and education, with the rest coming from the value of the skills, experiences, and wisdom they gain at work. But women tend to accrue less of this “experience capital” during their careers, which inhibits their promotion rates and ultimate earning potential, according to McKinsey Senior Partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and María del Mar Martínez, authors of The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women—and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It. They suggest several ways in which women can gain more experience capital, such as focusing on high-growth occupations and industries and developing technology skills that can help them in their current roles and beyond. “Companies can take important steps to fix the broken rung by making sure employees are getting equal opportunities for leadership and promotion,” the authors say. “But waiting for companies to change is not a strategy.” To learn more, register for a McKinsey Live webinar with the authors on Tuesday, March 11. | | |
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| Reaching the next rung of the corporate ladder is a visible measure of career progress, but it’s not always the most important one. Job seekers should focus on what gives them energy and direction and what capabilities they want to develop, according to the authors of Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career. “If you can prioritize which of those are the most important, you can say, ‘OK, I’m willing to trade off on the bigger title or the more prestigious company because I get to do all these other things that are really important to me,’” says Michael B. Horn, an adjunct lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, in an episode of Author Talks. His coauthor Ethan Bernstein, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, adds that successful job movers they interviewed for the book “thought about not just ‘being hired by’ their next organization or job. Rather, they considered ‘hiring’ their next job based on the progress they wanted to make in their own careers.”
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| A decade ago, demand for AI prompt engineers was nonexistent. Today, it’s skyrocketing, and innovation will continue to spawn brand-new jobs in the years to come. In this environment, women can maximize their career potential by embracing a lifelong-learning mindset. McKinsey’s Jacqueline Brassey and coauthors identify seven practices to help people become lifelong learners, including establishing a growth mindset, developing multiple areas of expertise, and stretching outside of one’s comfort zone. People with a growth mindset “believe that their true potential is unknown because it is impossible to foresee what might happen as a result of passion, effort, and practice,” the authors say. “Ultimately, they may achieve more of their potential than someone with a fixed mindset.” | | | Lead by taking control of your career journey. | | | | | — Edited by Eric Quiñones, senior editor, New York
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