By Sunday Tollefson, MBA, PMP® 

Sixty percent of male managers now say they are uncomfortable participating in work activities with women - activities including  socializing, mentoring, and working one-on-one (Source: CNBC Make It: Closing the Gap: 60% of male managers now say they're uncomfortable participating in work activities with women).  In other words, they don't participate in work activities with women. By process of elimination, it is quite likely that these same managers DO participate in those work activities with men.

What happens when managers invest time in talent? Workers get better projects, better exposure to high level leaders, they are more likely to have executive ambitions, and are more exited about staying with the company. This is equally true for both men and women. 

What happens when workers don't get this attention? They don't get assigned to the better projects, they don't get exposure to leaders, they hold back and back off....