It saddens me to walk into meetings with leadership teams to find the disproportionate representation of men and women on the team. Especially given the research that backs the business case for gender diversity.
A recent EY women in leadership report concluded that, "Leadership groups make smarter, more informed decisions; customers are better understood; employees are less cynical and more engaged; and organisations gain competitive advantage" when there are large numbers of senior women within the organisation.
Clearly, something needs to change.
It is wonderful to see the conversation around how to support and promote women in leadership roles gaining momentum. It is clear that there is no one simple answer to this challenge. There is robust debate about whether we should have quotas, the need for more ideal female role models, the impact senior men can have on encouraging more women, and training and coaching to help women get the competitive edge. All are important and the answer will undoubtedly take a combination of all of these.
But I believe it is also time for women to stop competing with men and start embracing their unique brilliant feminine skills and capabilities to add to the corporate equation.
Mid last century women in large numbers discovered that they liked working, earning money and gaining recognition for their talents. They demanded to be treated equally to men and in order to succeed in business, many believed they basically had to become like men and compete with them for the prized senior roles.
Unfortunately this means leaving much of our innate femininity behind. On a primal level men and women are essentially wired differently.
Many women are hardwired to desire collaboration and operate from a place of compassion, empathy and intuition. While men generally speaking are driven to bring home a good income for their family, achieve status and recognition, and are firmly focused on achieving targets and goals.
Given that historically most workplaces have been male dominated for a very long time, they essentially operate from a masculine paradigm where the focus is on winning, power and the bottom line, with little consideration to anything else.
When we let go of our natural, innate strengths and reject our feminine energy, we may not feel right but often don't know why. Women tell me they feel disconnected, constantly tied, and struggle between making decisions from a compassionate, intuitive place verses from a logical numbers driven perspective.
It is important to recognise that both men and women develop strong leadership skills when they tap into both their masculine and feminine energy. It is not an either or but a combination that makes the most powerful leaders.
I believe it's time to be bold and lead like a women. You will feel better, see better results from your team and create a more engaged, happier workforce.
Here are some tips to bringing your strong feminine energy to work.
- Recognise your strengths. Start by recognising and acknowledging your unique strengths. Are you bringing all of who you are and what you are capable of to your role?
- Connect even more. Women love to connect and we are good at it. So do more of it! But let's also be a little strategic about it. Who can you connect, network and build a relationship with, who might be able to support you and help you to tap into leadership opportunities?
- Collaborate for powerful outcomes. Collaboration is a key strength of many women. It is time to break down the barriers and competitive nature of many workplaces and start working more effectively together to reach a common goal.
- Get your team on board. We all bring so much more to our work if we feel involved and included. An engaged team will bring you results that will get you noticed!
- Dress like a woman. Stop blending in and looking like one of the men at work. Identify your style, dress for success and bring a touch of femininity to your outfit. Just keep it professional.
- Manage your energy. Work life balance is a myth with many women holding down busy paid employment and then heading home to step into their second full time role as mother, wife and social organiser.
So to avoid burn out, one solution is to understand what activities give you energy and build more of these into your day. Discover what task deplete you and delegate as many of these as you can. If most of your work is made up of energy sappers, I would seriously be asking whether you are in the right role.
As women we bring to our leadership roles unique and important attributes such as building relationships, collaboration and partnerships – all of which trump traditional power and competition of the masculine workplace.
Workplaces everywhere are crying out for a change in the way we do things and I believe that in many instances the increased participation of women in leadership positions, leading as women from their feminine power, is the answer.
By: Jane Benston
Originally published: 1 May, 2014
Source: Women's Agenda
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