Know Your Leadership Style
It’s important to understand and acknowledge what kind of leader you are, because your leadership style sets the culture for the rest of the company, Rogers told the audience. “I want excellence out of myself and out of the team that works with me,” she said. “I want guts. We know we’re not always going to get it right, but I constantly set the bar a little higher.”
Reap Benefits from Diverse Viewpoints
Dean Madhav Rajan, who welcomed the enthusiastic crowd, emphasized the importance of attracting women—and others—to Chicago Booth through rigorous analysis, tight-knit community, and flexible curriculum. “We wouldn’t be the school we are today without a community of diverse opinions and backgrounds,” said Rajan, who is also the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting. “We support one another and nurture one another, but we don’t need everybody to be or look exactly as we do.”
To help strengthen its diverse and inclusive community, Booth welcomed Angela Pace-Moody, AB ’97, as inaugural director of global diversity and inclusion. Since joining the school in July 2021, Pace-Moody has supported D&I initiatives for students in all Booth programs and acted as a liaison to the alumni community.
“As we embark on this work, I look forward to getting to know many of you and engaging with you on various initiatives,” Pace-Moody said in her introductory remarks at the event. “The office of Global D&I looks forward to developing and supporting programs and opportunities for the entire Chicago Booth community of learners and leaders that will deepen our individual and collective empowerment, understanding, and senses of equity and belonging.”
Spark Change through Collaboration
Many current Booth students—42 percent of the Full-Time MBA Program’s class of 2023 are women—also participated in the conference, affording the audience an opportunity to witness firsthand how they are creating change. Evening MBA student Christina Starks moderated the audience Q&A session with Saujani, while Evening MBA student Cassy Horton—a Neubauer Civic Scholar and executive director of the Pickles Group, a nonprofit that provides peer-to-peer support to kids whose parent or caregiver has cancer—emceed a discussion titled Chats for Charity.
The Chats for Charity conversation helped spotlight partnerships between corporations and nonprofits, including between Northern Trust and Ignite, Morningstar and YWCA, and GingerBread Capital and Invest in Girls. “At Booth, we know that it takes a focus across sectors to make lasting change,” Horton said.
Pursue Success through Flexibility
Throughout the pandemic, working mothers have dealt with huge professional setbacks and began leaving the workforce in droves to care for their families. As more companies and workers consider new solutions, Saujani says it needs to start with flexible work schedules, paid leave for both men and women, affordable childcare, shared responsibilities in the home, and convenient work arrangements enabled by the power of technology. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not go back to a broken system,” she said.