The story of how solving women’s advancement challenges revealed a fundamental flaw in how organizations develop leaders—and the revolutionary system that fixes it for everyone
The Question That Changed Everything
In November 2000, Business Week published a cover story with a headline that should have changed everything: “As Leaders Women Rule: New studies find that female managers outshine their counterparts on almost every measure.”
Susan Colantuono, already 28 years into her career focused on leadership development, read that article and asked the question that would eventually transform how organizations think about developing talent: “If these individuals are so capable, why aren’t they advancing? What’s broken in our system?”
What Susan discovered when she dug into the research wouldn’t just solve a specific demographic challenge—it would expose a fundamental flaw in how leadership development works across all organizations.
The Hidden Bias in Leadership Selection
Susan didn’t just read the Business Week summary—she went straight to the source studies. When she categorized leadership skills using her three-part framework, a troubling pattern emerged that extended far beyond any single group:
Personal Greatness: Fairly distributed across all demographics Engaging Others: Strong performers existed everywhere, often overlooked Achieving Business Outcomes: Consistently rated higher for those who “looked the part” of traditional leadership
Susan realized this wasn’t just about one demographic group—it revealed a systemic problem with how organizations identify and develop leadership potential. The issue was that companies were cherry-picking based on intuition and unconscious bias rather than measurable capability.
The Flawed Foundation of Traditional Leadership Development
For over two decades, Susan built her practice around a revolutionary insight: leadership development was failing because it relied on subjective selection followed by generic training. The process typically looked like this:
- Subjective Selection: Leaders pick people who remind them of themselves
- Generic Development: Send selected individuals to one-size-fits-all programs
- Hope for the Best: Assume training will stick without ongoing support
- Repeat the Cycle: Continue selecting from the same limited pool
Susan recognized this selection bias was pervasive across leadership development programs. Most targeted people who’d already been identified as “high potential,” but the identification process itself was deeply flawed—subjective and often unconsciously biased.
The result? Organizations consistently developed the same type of leaders while overlooking tremendous talent across their workforce.
A New Philosophy: Strategic Leadership Development
When Susan connected with I.Liv’s founders Sandra and Idana, she recognized something revolutionary. Here was a team building a system that could develop leadership capability at scale, regardless of who had been previously “selected” for advancement.
I.Liv wasn’t asking “who looks like leadership material?” They were asking “how do we create conditions where anyone with capability can develop and demonstrate leadership potential?”
This philosophical shift was profound. Instead of rationing leadership development for the chosen few, I.Liv was creating a system that could identify and nurture leadership potential wherever it existed in an organization.
The Three Pillars of Strategic Development
Through their collaboration, I.Liv developed an approach based on three revolutionary principles:
- Universal Access to Real Skills Rather than limiting business acumen development to “high potentials,” I.Liv makes these crucial skills available to everyone. Susan emphasizes that every person in an organization benefits from understanding business, financial, and strategic thinking—so why restrict that to a select few?
- Measurable Development at Every Level I.Liv’s system doesn’t rely on subjective assessments of “leadership potential.” Instead, it creates measurable skill development that can be tracked, verified, and improved over time. Capability becomes visible through action, not assumption.
- Continuous Growth Infrastructure The daily app structure means development isn’t a one-time event for chosen individuals—it’s an ongoing system that supports continuous growth for anyone willing to engage with it.
How It Works in Practice
The transformation happens through simple but powerful daily practices that anyone can adopt. Each morning, regardless of role or level, individuals learn to ask:
- What key business outcomes do I need to advance today?
- Who do I need to engage to move those outcomes forward?
- What personal strengths will I draw on to engage them effectively?
Susan found this framework works whether you’re an individual contributor or a C-suite executive. It develops business thinking and strategic capability organically, without requiring anyone to decide who “deserves” development.
The Organizational Impact
Companies implementing this strategic approach report something remarkable: leadership emerges from unexpected places. When you stop pre-selecting who gets development opportunities and instead create systems that develop everyone, you discover talent that traditional approaches miss entirely.
The business impact is measurable:
- Broader leadership pipeline: More people developing capability means more options for advancement
- Reduced bias: Merit becomes visible through demonstrated competency rather than subjective assessment
- Higher engagement: When development isn’t rationed, everyone feels invested in growth
- Organic succession planning: Leaders develop naturally across all levels and departments
Beyond Demographics: A New Model
What started as solving a specific advancement challenge evolved into something much bigger. Through her decades of experience, Susan realized that fair, effective leadership development benefits everyone. When you create systems that work for those who’ve been overlooked, you create better systems for everyone.
I.Liv’s approach doesn’t ignore differences in experience, role, or background—it meets people where they are and provides tools for growth regardless of starting point. The result is organizations that develop leadership capability as a core competency rather than an accidental byproduct of intuitive selection.
The Competitive Advantage
In an era where organizations compete for talent and adaptability, the old model of leadership development has become a liability. Companies that rely on subjective selection and episodic training are limiting their own potential.
I.Liv’s democratic approach creates a different kind of competitive advantage: systematic leadership capability development across the entire organization. Instead of hoping the right people get the right development at the right time, companies can build leadership strength everywhere.
Looking Forward
After nearly five decades in this field, Susan has developed a proven approach to solving the hardest problems in human development. Her time-tested methodology, now tech-enabled through I.Liv’s agile, next-gen platform, creates transformative results. When you build systems that work for everyone using proven concepts elevated by cutting-edge technology, you create systems that work better than anything that came before.
I.Liv didn’t just solve a demographic advancement challenge—we pioneered a new model by taking Susan’s established framework and amplifying it with our innovative methodology and technology to help organizations develop human potential at scale, fairly, and effectively.
The Bottom Line
Leadership isn’t a rare quality that only some people possess. It’s a set of skills that can be developed systematically when organizations commit to creating the right conditions for growth.
By moving beyond subjective selection and generic training, I.Liv has created something unprecedented: a scalable system for developing leadership capability wherever it exists in an organization. The result isn’t just better individual outcomes—it’s stronger organizations built on a foundation of broadly distributed capability rather than concentrated authority.
Ready to stop limiting leadership development to the chosen few and start building capability across your entire organization?
I.Liv Performance creates systematic leadership development that works at every level, helping organizations build capability organically and fairly while maximizing human potential across their entire workforce.