If you lead or support an Employee Resource Group or Inclusion Council, you already know the truth:
Your ERG or Council role is the place you grow the most. It pushes you, stretches you, and gives you opportunities your day job sometimes never touches. And yet—the value of that work is still underestimated in many organizations. This blog will help you name and claim the professional growth that this experience is already giving you.
For business leaders, this is your invitation to understand exactly why ERG and Council leadership is one of the strongest, most strategic development levers inside your organization.
Let’s get into it.
Building the Skills that Organizations Struggle to Teach
ERG and Council leaders often tell me, “I’ve grown more in my ERG role than in any formal training program.” These roles build critical skills including strategic thinking, project and program management, executive communication, influence without authority, cross-functional collaboration, fiscal responsibility and budget stewardship, and storytelling with or without data.
I’ve personally learned the most valuable (and sometimes difficult) lessons of my career through ERG leadership. At times, I’ve had the opportunity to learn and hone skills that simply weren’t tapped in my full-time role. For example, when I was a training facilitator, I didn’t have an expense line or budget to manage – but I was managing the expenditures for my ERG chapter. When I was a call center manager, I didn’t have much positional power to change the organization, but I had connections to people through my ERG whom I wouldn’t have met otherwise – and the opportunity to influence them through knowledge and trust. I’ve also received coaching and feedback (good, bad, and otherwise) which I didn’t get from direct managers, as my ERG roles showcased my skills and talents in different ways than my full-time job. And I’ve certainly found the most valuable mentors and sponsors through relationships that I created in ERG roles.
ERG and Council leaders develop and practice both core and expanded competencies every day. You’re designing initiatives, pitching ideas to executives, running complex events across departments, and measuring progress with limited resources. That’s not extracurricular—it’s honing core leadership skills.
ERG and Council leaders: You are building a résumé of real, applied leadership.
Business leaders: If you’re looking for your next generation of managers, they’re already leading your ERGs and Councils.
Building Cultural Intelligence and Modern Leadership Fluency
Today’s workplace demands leaders who can navigate intersections and connect across cultures to build trust – whether you’re in an office or warehouse or storefront, whether you’re in the same building as your teammates or meeting in hybrid, global environments. ERGs and Councils accelerate this growth through connection.
In every GEN engagement, we emphasize a fundamental truth: ERG and Council leaders are developing the hardest-to-teach leadership skills: empathy, cultural agility, and the ability to read the room—across generations, identities, and functions. These leadership roles create experiences and spaces that require employees to develop emotional intelligence and facilitate conversations across differences to build inclusive practices that help people feel appreciated, connected, and valued. Those serving also deepen their understanding of how employee contributions and ideas can directly impact business outcomes, and often seek ways to translate culture challenges into business insights.
These are not “soft skills.” These are the capabilities that differentiate high-impact leaders from average ones.
ERG and Council leaders: Your experience makes you a stronger, more human-centered leader.
Business leaders: ERGs and Councils are where cultural fluency and inclusive leadership take shape—not in a classroom or rhetoric, but in lived practice.
A Channel for Unmatched Visibility
One of the biggest career accelerators is visibility; being seen, trusted, and recognized by leaders across the organization. ERG and Council work opens doors that many employees never get access to in their day roles. This might include presenting directly to executives or leading enterprise-wide initiatives, partnering with DEIB, HR, and business units, or even representing the company externally. You cannot buy this kind of visibility. You earn it through meaningful work with real outcomes.
ERG and Council leaders: If you’ve been asking how to elevate your career, your ERG or Council role may already be putting you in the rooms where decisions are made.
Business leaders: If you want talent with enterprise perspective and senior-level communication skills, look first to your ERG and Council leadership benches.
Reducing Barriers to Advancement
For many employees, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, traditional pathways to leadership aren’t always accessible. ERGs and Councils change that. They create structured, safe, community-rich pathways where employees can step into stretch roles, lead without needing a formal title, and gain access to mentorship and sponsorship. They may also offer moments to practice executive presentation skills, build confidence and organizational political acumen, and gain experience that translates directly to promotion criteria. ERG and Council leadership becomes an incubation center for skill and potential.
ERG and Council leaders: The path you’re building is a career accelerator.
Business leaders: ERG and Council leadership is a ready-made pipeline for engaged, high-performing employees whom you can develop and promote.
Connecting Passion to Purpose—and Purpose to Performance
Most people join ERGs and Councils because they care. They stay because they realize something deeper:
This work makes them better at their jobs.
More connected to the business.
More invested in the culture.
More aligned with their own values and career goals.
ERG and Council leadership teaches how to design experiences that retain people, how to turn engagement into performance, how to drive change within complex systems, how to communicate with clarity and influence, and how to turn ideas into measurable outcomes. That’s not volunteerism. That’s enterprise impact and professional transformation.
If ERG and Council Leadership Is an Engine, Leaders Must Fuel It
Here’s the message every business leader needs to internalize: When employees lead ERGs and Councils, they’re not stepping away from their work, they’re leveling up for it. Investing in this work means investing in stronger leadership pipelines, higher retention, greater innovation, better cross-functional alignment, and a more engaged and connected workforce. If your organization wants leaders who know people, culture, strategy, and change management, ERGs and Councils are already developing them.
The Bottom Line
ERG and Council leaders: Your work is not “extra.” It’s evidence of your leadership potential and one of the most strategic career investments you can make.
Business leaders: If you’re not evaluating, rewarding, and leveraging ERG leadership as a critical development function, you are leaving talent—and competitive advantage—on the table.