If you haven’t yet nominated your rising stars for our 14th Annual Women Worth Watching Awards, I personally encourage you to do so soon. Nominations close April 17, and you won’t want to miss this celebration of female leadership for so many reasons:
- Your nomination helps inspire further professional achievement. In the 14-year history of this award, many of the women that have been recognized have gone on to take on even larger challenges and lead bigger initiatives. Still others, like GM’s CEO Mary Barra, went on to take on leadership of their entire company. In fact, 9 former Women Worth Watching Winners are now CEOs of Fortune 1000 organizations. Personally, I think that type of inspiration is a great return on your investment!
- Nothing influences a woman to succeed like another’s success. I was lucky enough to be part of the launch of Women Worth Watching over 15 years ago. Many of the women I interviewed for our first few issues shared stories with me that have had a tremendous impact on my life and career. And isn’t that the key to motivation? Creating that role model to emulate?
- Your organization wins, too, by enhancing your reputation as one that empowers, supports and promotes women’s leadership. Let your candidates—and your internal stakeholders—know that you are genuine in your efforts to help them achieve their potential.
What Makes This Award Special?
In 2002, the year we launched Women Worth Watching™, there were only 10 women CEOs at the helm of Fortune 500 companies.
At the time, I remember thinking that those numbers showed real progress. Just two years before, there had been only three women CEOs on that list. Three. And studies showed that more than one half of the Fortune 500 organizations had fewer than three women corporate officers.*
I couldn’t help but wonder—“it’s the dawn of a new century, so why is it still so rare to have a woman leader at the corporate table?”
That’s why we launched Women Worth Watching. Showcasing the breadth of female leadership talent in organizations; urging corporations to identify, recognize and deeply develop their women of influence; and recognizing those organizations that help women leaders thrive…we believed, and still do, that there’s no better way to start a movement in an organization.
Read Nine Success Stories
Since our inaugural year, nine of the women we have featured from Fortune 1000 companies have gone on to take on their organization’s top role. That’s a pretty remarkable number! And one look at the thousands of talented women we have recognized over the last 13 years will tell you the leadership talent pipeline is full and deep.
We may still have far to go. But there are many organizations with the will, the culture, and the bench strength to get us there. Those are the organizations you’ll read about in this issue.
I encourage you to celebrate the talent in your organization—and strengthen your leadership pipeline—by nominating a Woman Worth Watching today. I also invite you to read the compelling stories of the nine Fortune 1000 CEOs that are former award recipients.
Nominations close Friday, April 17. Visit our nominations page to learn more about the new Women Worth Watching award process and nomination rules.
Let us help you celebrate the leadership in your organization. Award Winners will be announced May 1.