1. Don’t  Be Afraid Of  Unconventional Hires

Great team members can come from anywhere. When searching for the right candidates, companies often look for the safest bets. But by conducting a limited search, you may end up missing the best candidate. Looking at those who may be considered unconventional, you may uncover an unexpected skill set, or a unique approach—qualities that can make all the difference for an organization.

Our office in Nanjing, China provided us the opportunity to put this plan into practice. Traditionally, many young women in China find it difficult to enter the business world due to the societal pressure to get married and have children and the reluctance employers have to hire women who will soon go on maternity leave.

We decided to take a different approach to hiring. Instead of creating a team of only young men, we aimed to hire young women who were about to graduate college. We chose to invest in their training and development, helping them grow professionally and within our company, regardless of any potential future need for maternity leave.

We’re flexible when it comes to maternity leave and child care—and our company culture has allowed our team members in China to have both a family and a career. In fact, women make up the vast majority of our support team in the Nanjing office and 100-percent of the female team members who have taken maternity leave have returned to work at Apprise.

2. Institutionalize Mentoring

Remember that every leader began her career as a junior-level employee. The path she travels between joining a company and running one needs to be filled with support. Women, especially, often feel disadvantaged on the road to executive leadership; we, as female mentors, can play a very powerful role in mentoring other young women.

A solid mentoring program is imperative. Matching team members who have similar personalities, backgrounds and career goals makes the process go smoothly. Mentoring cannot be an occasional exercise, it needs to be a daily exchange. This is the place where junior team members have the opportunity to express their ideas and where mentors can recognize emerging leaders.

It’s not just junior team members who can benefit from mentoring – everyone can, from the person answering the phones all the way up to the C-suite. It’s important that executives listen to their team members, remain open-minded and welcome other perspectives. Ideas from the bottom up have value and can ultimately benefit the entire company.