5 Things an Organisation can do to Help Women into Leadership

There are two reasons why businesses need to go out of their way to get women into leadership:

1. Women have often sacrificed years of their lives raising your next generation of customers – the ones you’ll need to keep you solvent in years to come
2. So many research studies show women in leadership add to companies’ bottom lines and improve the experience of work for all

Many factors (eg taking years out of the workforce, unconscious bias at work, a greater need to take family needs into consideration, a different mindset) show women need support that fits their specific needs – and that’s not always the same as that provided for men.

I’m not suggesting men aren’t involved in their families (though women have taken the opportunity to work from home more than men), nor that women are a ‘special needs’ category but that everyone needs equity – the support they specifically need to get to the roles they want and deserve.

Here are 5 areas companies could target:

1. Finding a way to keep people top of mind in the minds of others when they are in the office less often. Let’s reduce the ‘out of sight out of mind’ effect.
   It is a natural human cognitive bias to ‘grab’ the mentally available – the person you’ve just chatted with for example, for the opportunity that’s just presented itself. How can we ensure equal opportunity for those WFH?
2. Can we get better Zoom skills please? Research shows women often feel they are not getting their points across and it’s clear that the quieter voices struggle to be heard due to the more robust style required/used.
3. What can companies do to increase women’s power of influence and encourage them to network upwards not downwards?
4. What can companies do to help women see themselves as leaders?
   Identity is one of the most powerful predictors of behaviour (and hence achievement). What can we do to help women see themselves as their own type of leader – especially if they don’t feel drawn to any stereotype of leadership in the organisation?
5. More studies show the importance to everyone of networking. But the type of network women most benefit from is not the same as the one men benefit from. A strong driver of success is a small, trusting, mutually supporting group of women who are there to support each other’s progress. Can companies facilitate this?

Hope so!