Whenever I speak at a corporate conference or teach a workshop about gender diversity, at least one woman says something like: “If the CEO brings up his daughter one more time, I’m going to lose my marbles.”
Does this reaction surprise you? It certainly surprised a well-liked and well-intentioned CEO of a large financial services firm with whom I recently worked. He was shocked to learn just how not well his father-daughter story went over. This particular CEO—let’s call him Dave—was entirely on board with creating an inclusive company culture and with promoting talented women. He had assumed that his personal story would show just how much he cared about the women in his life, and how he had worked hard to support and encourage them. Unfortunately, his story had the opposite effect. Read More…