When I wrote about feeling invisible as a woman in business, I expected a lot of “yes, me too.” I also heard from men who said, “this happens to us as well.” That’s all true and still beside the point. We don’t need more parsing of who has it worse; we need more people with power doing something about it. If you’re a man in a position of influence — a manager, a director, an executive, a board member — your choices can change the dynamics in a meeting with a single sentence and alter career trajectories with a single nomination. This isn’t about theatrics. It’s about consistent, everyday behaviors that shift power and create real opportunity.
Here are concrete, practical steps men in leadership can take today to amplify, sponsor, and advocate for women — not as an occasional gesture but as part of how you lead.
1. Name the originator, every time
When an idea is repeated and adopted, credit the person who first said it. It’s that simple. If a colleague restates a point and the room leans in, say, “Yes — as Robin just suggested…” Don’t make it performative. Make it normal. Over time, this practice helps the room to listen differently and protects the intellectual contributions of those who are too often overlooked.
2. Use your voice to shift culture
Speak up when jokes, microaggressions, or dismissive comments happen. You don’t need to moralize. Be direct: “That joke undermines the person’s authority. Let’s not do that.” When leaders tolerate small erasures, they signal what’s acceptable. When leaders correct them, norms change.
3. Interrupt the pattern, not the person
If you notice that a woman’s point was glossed over and later echoed by someone else, pause the conversation and bring it back: “I want to return to Robin’s earlier point — how might we operationalize that?” This redirects attention to the idea and the person without putting the woman on the defensive for reasserting herself.
4. Sponsor, don’t just mentor
Mentorship is valuable. Sponsorship moves the needle. Mentors advise; sponsors advocate. If you’re in a seat to hire, promote, or allocate stretch assignments, use your influence: recommend women for high-visibility projects, insist on diverse shortlists, and put your name behind their candidacy in rooms where decisions are made. If you are asked to consider talent for a promotion, explicitly ask, “Who on my team should I be championing for this?”
5. Amplify in public, coach in private
When you’re in a meeting with clients, executives, or external partners, use your voice to amplify women’s contributions publicly: “I want to highlight Robin’s leadership on this initiative.” After the meeting, take time one-on-one to give candid feedback and tactical coaching. Public amplification builds reputation; private coaching builds capability.
6. Change meeting mechanics
Meetings are where visibility is won and lost. Simple structural changes reduce bias:
- Set a rule that the person who suggested the agenda item presents first.
- Use a “round-robin” for input so quieter voices are invited in.
- If someone is interrupted, pause and ask them to finish.
- Circulate materials in advance so ideas are evaluated on their merits, not on who can speak the loudest.
7. Sponsor access to stretch assignments
High-impact work is rarely distributed evenly. If a woman on your team has the skills and ambition, put her forward for the client pitch, the cross-functional task force, or the board presentation. If stakeholders push back with vague concerns (“not ready,” “not the usual profile”), press them: “What would success look like, and how can we mitigate the risk while giving Robin the opportunity?”
8. Normalize failure and visible learning
Risk aversion can disproportionately penalize women who are often held to higher standards. When something goes sideways, lead the lesson: model accountability without blame, highlight what was learned, and ensure opportunities follow. If you shield only the people who fit the old mold, you preserve the inequity.
9. Measure sponsorship and hold yourself accountable
If your organization doesn’t track who gets promoted, who gets the $100K accounts, who presents to the board, start it. Ask HR for a dashboard. Track the distribution of stretch assignments, promotion rates, and speaking opportunities by gender. Set targets and review them quarterly. If you’re allocating opportunities, record whom you advocated for and why. Accountability turns good intentions into measurable progress.
10. Sponsor visible role models and policy change
Champion systemic fixes—formal sponsorship programs, equitable parental leave, flexible work policies, transparent promotion criteria. Nominate women to external boards, panel conversations, and industry awards. These visible endorsements expand networks and reputations beyond your walls.
11. Don’t center yourself in the story
Allyship is not a performance for applause. It is not about the number of times you called someone out publicly. It’s measured in outcomes: increased representation at senior levels, fair distribution of high-impact work, and a workplace where reporting “they didn’t credit me” becomes rarer. When you’ve used your influence, step back. Let the spotlight move to the people who earned it.
12. Ask, listen, act
If you’re not sure what’s needed, ask your team: “Where do you feel unseen? Who needs advocacy?” Then listen without defensiveness. Make a short plan with concrete steps and follow up. People are generous with feedback when they see leaders acting on it.
One final point: allyship requires consistency. Occasional gestures are visible and valuable, but they don’t rewrite structural patterns. The most powerful allyship is habitual. It shows up in every meeting, in every hiring conversation, in every budget allocation. It’s quiet, persistent, and sometimes unglamorous. It may be invisible to those who’ve always benefited from systemic inertia, but it will be transformative for those who need it most.
If you hold power, you already know enough to start. Tomorrow, credit the originator at your next meeting and nominate a woman on your team for a visible stretch assignment. Those small acts compound. They create momentum. They change careers.
If you’re a woman reading this, know that asking for sponsorship is legitimate. Name it when you need it: “I’m looking for someone to sponsor me for X; who can help?” That request creates an opening for someone to step in.
We all have roles to play. Words matter, but they are not enough. Power matters. Use it.
Robin Boehler is a founder and partner at Mercer Island Group. Robin has spent her career advising major brands and agencies on strategy, operations, and organizational effectiveness—often while fighting to be seen and heard in rooms that weren’t built with her in mind. She has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Discover Financial Services, Viator, Sevrpro, Ulta Beauty, UScellular, Seabourn, Kaiser Permanente, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Giant Food, Brooks Running, and numerous others. She is an industry leader, captivating speaker and strategist that is often called upon to speak on a variety of marketing services and agency topics.
Mercer Island Group helps marketers and agencies succeed. Company leadership is as much at home with marketers and their C-Suites as in an agency’s boardroom. With marketers, Mercer Island Group is a top 5 agency search consultancy covering all types of agency relationships (creative, media, web, PR, experiential) and assists marketers with marketing organization structure, workflow and critical skill development (briefing, creative evaluation & feedback, etc.). The company also supports leading and aspiring agencies with positioning, pitch and strategy training and pitch support.