Despite growing efforts to increase leadership opportunities for women in the workplace, many organisations still have difficulty managing male to female equilibrium. Within today’s climate, businesses should seek to achieve equality in numbers and equal treatment of genders.
Through our expertise of working with different industries in HR and Tech, we see the discrepancy between male and female opportunities in the workplace. For example, industries such as tech are still primarily male-dominated.
We ask the questions, why is it important to create an accelerating environment for women to succeed in the workplace, and why do we need to promote female empowerment and leadership styles?
An accepting environment
Firstly, the environment of the business plays a large part in the promotion of female opportunities. We recently hosted a series called Accelerating Women in Leadership. One of our guest speakers included Sharon Clews, a well-established female leader with previous roles in Leadership Development with Prudential, Warner Brothers and Apple. Sharon talked about the catalysts that aid to promote female leaders within the business. Sharon believes that the model environment within business culture should promote confidence, self-love, and acceptance of being a woman, embracing all female traits and characteristics.
Selina Millstam (Vice President and Head of Talent Management at Ericsson), who was a lead speaker at one of our Erupt Events, conversed how an inclusive environment will also allow women to feel more engaged.
An environment where you have the ability to network is also a vital tool for any woman aspiring to be a business leader. People gain success through the power of gaining respect. Women can also seek guidance or acquaintance with others in leadership roles. If women proactively maintain and develop relationships, they are able to demonstrate leadership qualities and improve their personal development skills.
Leadership style
Embracing how women make decisions differently to men is fundamental in allowing women to thrive within an organisation. It has been demonstrated that women are more consultative in their approach to making decisions. For example, the opinions of experts around them are taken into consideration, rather than a male approach which is to make this decision without consultation. Men tend not to take this collaborative approach in case it undermines their own status of knowledge. As a result, the female approach to leadership is more collaborative.
Sharon Clews highlighted the stereotypical female leadership characteristics, which include:
- Negotiating
- Multitasking and experience with boundaries
- Relating, understanding, and sharing
- Leading with compassion – putting oneself in someone else’s shoes
- Empathy
- Emotion and respect
- Communication
Changing mindsets
However, it is not just the woman’s job to gain or maintain leadership; it must be a commitment that men need to make on a personal level to achieve gender parity. Jerry Pico, Co-Lead, Global Culture Transformation Initiative at Daiichi Sankyo held a discussion in an exclusive video series with the BTN. Jerry believes that nothing changes unless men adjust their mindset and actively share every possibility that they can with women who don’t have access to the same opportunities.
In summary, having female leaders within your business typically provides more ideas for inclusivity and different leadership styles. There doesn’t have to be a ‘strategic route’ with a linear path when becoming a female leader. If women are confident and have access to a beneficial environment, they are able to create a path to their own success.
Click to watch the full series – Accelerating Women in Leadership in partnership with CoachHub.
Click to watch the Excellence In Leadership 2020 Conference on demand.
