Women in Leadership Positions: what is your role?

Several key ideas to promote the inclusion of women in leadership positions.

Over the past 100 years, women have made great strides, but this is the generation that has the best chance of achieving equality.

As a female leader for the past 30 years and as the founder of FastrackToRefocus Coaching, I am proud to be part of that effort by continuing to take active steps to help women advance in the corporate world. But true progress is a collective effort.

The state of women's leadership

To move forward, we must know our starting point. Although they hold nearly 52% of all managerial and professional-level positions, women lag substantially behind men in terms of their representation in leadership positions. Why aren't we seeing more progress?

Women face challenges and stereotypes that are barriers to their advancement. Understanding these dynamics is the first step toward a more equal and productive workplace.

Below I share some key ideas to keep in mind as you work to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce, and ways we can support our collective effort.

1. Create a pipeline

Leaders should pay close attention to how many women are in leadership positions and focus on how those women are being developed for future roles.. To support the creation of this pipeline in your organization, make sure you are building and supporting a workplace that offers more diverse development opportunities, executive visibility and change leadership.

2. Celebrate successes

Generally speaking, women tend to be less comfortable with self-promotion..

With this in mind, there is an opportunity for coworkers, both male and female, to help make the environment more welcoming by calling out the good work done by the women around them. This includes recognizing female colleagues during team meetings, highlighting their leadership impact and even acknowledging them on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. If someone does a good job, they should be appreciated and celebrated for it. Whether they are male or female.

3. Push women into more projects

One way to celebrate women's successes (and, in fact, give them the opportunity to achieve more) is to have more of them on important projects. Studies show that women are less likely to be assigned to larger projects with larger budgets.. As we all know, those projects are the ones that regularly lead to promotions and recognition within the company.

On projects large or small, women often end up with administrative tasks. Leaders must actively work to put women in a variety of roles.. Without experience doing different things, women may not have the same opportunity as men to discover their talents, find what they like to do or demonstrate their leadership potential.

Not utilizing the full skill set of women not only hurts their professional development, but could also be an inefficient use of a company's resources. You don't know what someone can do if you don't give them a chance.

Women need to help themselves in this area as well.. As a woman, it's up to you to stand up for yourself and ask for more opportunities. You can't have any expectations of advancement if you're not willing to put yourself out there, stretch your own capabilities and step out of your comfort zone. Fortune favors the brave.

Be a sponsor and advocate

Being a sponsor or advocate can be just as impactful as mentoring.. Mentoring is a relationship based on advice and guidance (a wonderful thing to have) but not necessarily associated with direct advancement. As a sponsor or advocate, you can actively work to promote women and recommend them for specific projects, development opportunities or leadership roles.

It is also beneficial for individuals to have a sponsor in different departments or areas of the company. Such exposure to other people and jobs can open up opportunities that make women leadership candidates with more options.

The role of HR

Progress on diversity and inclusion does not depend on human resources teams, but their active leadership can be transformative. As a leader, here are a couple of suggestions to champion change.

1.Know the data

HR departments need to know how teams are structured from all perspectives: race, gender, etc. This data needs to go beyond the number of employees.

Consider looking at recruiting, promotions, identified successors, performance ratings and compensation. After running the numbers, then you need to communicate where your company is with leadership. Identify opportunities (and there are always opportunities) and suggest specific actions to drive change. People may find these conversations uncomfortable, but I have found that lack of change starts with a lack of awareness.

2. Take action

If the data shows there is room for growth, you need to take action to improve the situation. Are there changes you can make in your management development programs that will help more people? Can you do more to actively ensure that the talent pipeline is diverse? Are you creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for your team?

Look at everything from recruiting to performance management, development programs, diversity and inclusion efforts, and be intentional in how you direct your role to support diversity.

Concluding

Women's allies in the workplace play a key role in driving forward, but ultimately, the best sponsors for women are women themselves.. So this International Women's Day, I want all women to stand up for themselves, seek new opportunities to grow and take career risks. Together we can continue the progress of the women who fought before us and set the stage for an equal and inclusive future.

No one is going to give you anything for free. Whether you are a man or a woman.

You have to show up in your life and sit at the front of the table. And in case they don't offer you a chair, always carry a folding chair in your backpack, briefcase or purse. And of course I am here to go hand in hand with you as an Executive and Career Coach in this new leadership and career development project.