Women in Leadership – is it that depressing?

First, it is exciting.  Recent findings are ALL pointing toward significant skills brought to the workplace by women.  Wonderfully beneficial skills such as:

• inspiring,
• the ability to sense undercurrents, and
• mentoring.

All these are perfect complements to the traditional male skills of focus and initiative.

Imagine how we might work together if only the environment were balanced? What if all those male-based workplaces were equally accepting of your out-of-the-box thinking as a woman?

But next comes the depressing. We are woefully misrepresented in numbers at leadership. Roughly 11% CEO’s at Fortune 500 companies are women, but also just barely above 15% across the board at any leadership position in businesses. This is a global number.

And other statistics that truly point us to the fact that our self-image is often what shoots the poison dart into that vein. Almost a fourth of women believe that you have to act like a man to be taken seriously.  And nearly as many men think that as well!  Yowza.

A client validated to me last week that in his company women go down in flames when trying to “lead like a man.” It backfires, and nearly kills future opportunities for up-and-comings.

Ah yes – here rests the tip of the iceberg AND the reason that Skirt Strategies was founded. Let’s get more capable in male-based work environments.

Where to start? Begin with a leadership self-assessment for  where you rate on  natural female leadership strengths.

More in the video!

At Skirt Strategies we focus on a different leadership goal each month, providing a training tip via video and weekly training assignments for subscribed members.