Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Elisabetta Bartoloni, a Heidrick & Struggles Partner and leader of the Americas Global Markets Practice.

In our post-pandemic workplaces where opportunities to advance to leadership have changed,  who better to speak with than Elisabetta Bartoloni from Heidrick & Struggles to understand the 2023 state of play for women in the workplace and the opportunities (and headwinds that remain) for advancing to leadership.

Leadership opportunities for women align with the key skills for today’s most successful leaders – empathy and inclusivity.  These styles tend to be more female forward and are harder to learn.  There has been a lot of investment in unconscious bias training and focus on honing these skills – but it simply has not worked.

Research also indicates that CULTURE has moved to the top slot for the drivers of performance (above strategy, operating model, and talent).  Also (and perhaps not surprising), companies with the highest scores on culture (where employees feel a sense of belonging….ability to show up as their authentic selves…), these companies financially outperform other by 2x.

Elisabetta points out that there has been progress of women advancing in leadership.  The missing link remains in advancement to positions that own P&L’s.  Her advice to others is to jump at those opportunities to have responsibility for the financial performance of a business, project, or unit.

Elisabetta also walks the walk with her efforts on the internal company Women Inspired Network and other external organizations that support girls seeing a path for themselves into leadership.  We continue to have a LOT of work to do to address gender parity in the workplace.

Starting early with girls, providing a company culture of support, community and advocacy, and leading by example  – all so very important.  Thank you Elisabetta!!

Guest bio:

 Elisabetta Bartoloni is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ New York office and sector leader of the Americas Global Markets Practice. She also co-chairs the firm’s Americas Women Inclusion Network (WIN). Previously, she led the Americas Investment & Corporate Banking Practice. She has more than 20 years of experience in executive search.

Elisabetta’s executive search and advisory practice spans from managing directors to functional roles, including CEO and board positions, across investment banking, global and capital markets, and asset management. In addition to working with global financial institutions, Elisabetta has worked extensively with boutique and middle market investment banks and other investment management and fintech companies.

Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, Elisabetta was a managing director at Westwood Partners focusing on investment banking and asset management in the Americas and responsible for the firm’s Latin America executive search practice. Prior to joining Westwood, Elisabetta was a director at J.H. McCann & Company, a boutique executive search firm exclusively serving the financial services industry and a senior associate in the global financial services practice of another global executive search firm. Elisabetta began her career in the financial services industry, having worked as a data research analyst in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.