Welcome back to Working Together, a weekly series on the changing face of U.S. business. This week I explore the importance of mentorship and sit down with the first woman to run a major marketing agency. Like what you’re reading? Subscribe above and @mention your colleagues that you think should join the #WorkingTogether community as well.

While the stats around gender equity in the workplace are often alarming, one I read last week gave me more pause than usual.

Some 60% of managers who are men are uncomfortable participating in common workplace activities with women, according to a recent poll conducted by Survey Monkey and LeanIn.org. These activities include mentoring, working alone and socializing together.

Throughout my career, I have interviewed hundreds of female executives across industries. While their stories on how they got to the top vary, I’ve discovered that the vast majority of them share one thing in common: Strong male mentors who advocated for them along the way.

In many ways, it’s simple math: A majority of managers and senior leaders are male, so it makes sense that senior female executives benefited from their guidance along the way. So if in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, men at work are shying away from interacting with their female colleagues, this can only have a detrimental impact on efforts to make the workplace more inclusive.

“To get to a safer and fairer workplace for all of us, women need equal mentorship and equal sponsorship,” wrote LeanIn.org’s Rachel Schall Thomas on LinkedIn. “And that starts with men – who are the majority of managers and senior leaders – doing more to support women, not less.”

Difference between you and your colleagues at work can make everyone feel uncomfortable. Whether we’re talking about gender, sexual orientation, age or ethnicity, difference can make us shut down, but that would be a step in the wrong direction. While you may be fearful of asking the wrong question or saying the wrong thing, proving that you are open to having an honest discussion on difference is the only way that we can make the workplace more equitable.

TUNE IN LIVE: Later today, at 12:30pm ET, I'll be discussing this topic and more with AllBright co-founder Debbie Wosskow. AllBright is a members club for women with a digital platform that runs free courses and connects women through a networking app. Have questions for Debbie on this or related topics? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether and catch the steam live here.

What’s Working

‘If not us, then who?’ This week, I bring you my sit down with Wendy Clark, the Global CEO of DDB Worldwide. In our interview, Clark explains how she became the first female CEO of the global ad agency, her system for methodically bringing more women into creative leadership positions and why, even as CEO, she doesn’t believe she is “too good” for the dirty work. Listen here:

More than quarterly results. The SEC approved The Long Term Stock Exchange, a new exchange that would allow startups to go public more quickly. This could be a boon for tech workers looking for great places to work: The LTSE is structured in a way that allows founders to focus on building sustainable businesses, as opposed to growth at all costs. [Corporate Finance News]

The moment of vulnerability. Career coach Brené Brown’s new Netflix documentary has everyone talking about what it really means to be vulnerable at work. LinkedIn’s Jessi Hempel explores the topic — and what it really means for senior leaders — with Facebook exec Carolyn Everson in the latest episode of Hello Monday. “I have a whole set of qualities that I'm much more clear on now than I was many years ago that define an enlightened leader versus not. And vulnerability is one of the top most important qualities,” said Everson. [LinkedIn Editors]

26 weeks. Bloomberg announced that it was upping its paternity policy to include 26-weeks of fully paid leave, regardless of the gender of the parent. The average paid leave across industries in the U.S. is 16 weeks. [Bloomberg]

What Needs Work

Should we celebrate 4.8%? After taking two steps backwards in 2018, the number of female CEOs in the Fortune 500 reached an all-time high in 2019. Why? Several women recently got the top job and companies with longtime female leaders entered the Fortune 500 for the first time this year. [Fortune]

Pay gap plans. Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced this week a fresh way to close the gender pay gap: Force companies to prove they don’t have one, or pay. Her proposal would require companies with more than 100 employees to every two years demonstrate that they are paying men and women similarly for the same work. The plan shifts the onus on reporting inequity from the employee to the employer. [NYTimes]

The power of teamwork. Only 16% of employees report to be fully engaged at work. And while employers are trying to tackle this all sorts of ways, a new study may point to the real solution: Investing in teams. Employees who work on teams that they deeply trust are twice as likely to enjoy their work. [HBR]

#TimesUp takes on the restaurant industry. 40% of female fast food workers said they had experienced harassment and more than 1 in 5 said they had faced consequences for reporting it. Now, the Times Up Legal Defense Fund is supporting the case of 23 new complaints from women against McDonald’s who are alleging misconduct. [NYTimes]

Who’s Pushing Us Forward

Billionaire pays off debt. The Morehouse College graduating class of 2019 got more than advice from commencement speaker Robert F. Smith: The venture capitalist announced he’d be paying off all 400 graduates students loans as well with a $40 million grant. Morehouse has graduated more African American males than any school in the United States, leading experts to say that Smith’s gift will likely have an immeasurable impact on the wealth gap in the country. [LinkedIn Editors]

What do you want to see in next week’s edition? Let me know in the comments below.