n this podcast, meet Chuck Shelton, male ally for over 50 years. His business, Greatheart Consulting focuses on diversity and inclusion.

Alison Martin-Books is a mentoring expert and founder of many businesses, including Diverse Talent Strategies. Her perspective on how women engage male allies as mentors is key for women leaders today.

Doug Karr and Doug Theis share their take emphasizing vulnerability, purposeful work, and listening to the women they mentor and advocate for.

In our first interview for the ONE podcast, we learn from proven leader, Donna Covey.  Donna is a trailblazer for women’s leadership and founder of IndyCREW, a women’s leadership organization focused on developing women in real estate.  Donna chooses to lead with vulnerability, humble confidence, and perseverance.  She shares her story and how she has engaged the support of male allies successfully throughout her 30+ year career.

Work-life balance is impossible.  Women leaders in organizations are scrambling to get it all done, and feeling like a human teeter totter.  Men want to help, but do not know how.  This is why our final strategy – work-life – is so critical.  In this podcast episode, you will learn how to practice self-care as a woman, and as a male ally, how to do the fair share.  Organizations that implement these strategies with their leadership teams achieve better business results.

Episode 3 features the third strategy to engage male allies as a woman leader, and how to support women leaders as a male ally – Speak.  The speak strategy is about speaking up with her for male allies, and speaking up with him for women leaders.  The proven principles of speaking up together and sharing our voices collaboratively begin healthy discussions in organizations looking to close the gender equality gap.

In this episode, you will learn the first strategy to engage male allies as a woman leader, and how to support women leaders as a male ally – Heart.  The heart strategy is about channeling the women you empathize for male allies, and starting the dialogue with the WIIFM (what’s in it for men) for women leaders.  Learn proven tools and techniques to begin the discussion together.

Story is powerful.  In our Story episode, women leaders learn how to share their stories with male allies, and male allies learn how to ask for HERstory.  The conversation shifts in organizations as women and male allies partner together for success.  Through learning about one another more with our proven techniques to facilitate story sharing, organizations improve gender equality and studies show an increase in profitability of 16%.

In the preview to our ONE podcast series, we introduce the strategies for women leaders and male allies to partner together for gender equality.  Male allies are men that support women as their equals and believe in equal pay and opportunities for women in the workplace.  In this podcast, you will learn how to engage male allies as a woman, and how to support women leaders as a male ally.  We found in our research there are four primary areas of support – heart, story, speak, and work-life.