Leadership & gender inequalities in the workplace (5 min read)
Welcome to another blog post!
Today I chose to focus our attention to leadership and gender inequalities. This is an inclusive piece and I believe that in order for us to grow and develop into the leaders of tomorrow, we need to be open, honest and create a shared understanding where both men and women can work together equally and in harmony.
My journey into this topic started with a discussion I had with an inspiring ICU consultant. At the time, she emphasised to me the importance of “leaning in,” to challenges in the workplace and recommended the book “Lean in” by Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO).
In this article I hope to summarise what it means to “lean in” and how we can all put this into our own leadership practice (that’s both men and women)!
Describing the book in 3 words:
Brilliant
Inspiring
Empowering
Gender inequality is embedded into us
Sheryl discusses some fascinating finds regarding personality traits that affect the way we are seen and perceived in the workplace.
How many of the following do you agree with?
Ambition:
Ambition is seen more negatively in women and more positively in men
Performance:
Men judge their own performance as better than it actually is
Women judge their own performance as worse than it actually is
Success:
If you ask a woman to credit her success she will often attribute it to external factors – “I got lucky,” “I worked got help from others.”
If you ask a man to credit his success, he will typically attribute it to his own innate personal qualities
This also happens in the media or community whereby others will deem women often “lucky,” or attribute success to external factors, whereas men will get praised and perceived to be more “deserving”.
Failure:
When women fail they are more likely to put this down to their own inherent lack of ability. This in turn decreases self confidence, as failures are attributed to personal qualities. In the end, future performance can be affected as it creates and develops insecurity.
When men fail, the cause of failure will often be attributed to external factors such as not working hard enough, “if I studied properly, this wouldn’t have happened,” or “I wasn’t really interested in the topic”.
Career attitudes:
Women typically apply for jobs if they think they meet almost 100% of the job requirements whereas men only look for a 60%.match.
Women suffer from the imposter experience more than men. (if you haven’t read our post on Imposter Syndrome – check it out here)
There are some fascinating facts here.
So if all this is true, or happens more often than not, what can we do about it? Below are a few excellent ideas I found helpful in the book…
5 leading changes you can make in your workplace:
1. Try “fake it ‘til you feel it”
e.g. a simple change in posture/clothes can lead to a change in mindset.
This one helps when it comes to important job interviews and meetings, even if it is online! Signalling cues such as clothing have been proven to help you perform at your best.
2. Shift the mindset
e.g reframe your thoughts. Make “I’m not ready to do that” to “I want to do that and I’ll learn by DOING it..”. Yes it will be uncomfortable, but that’s the only way to grow and develop. With challenge comes change!
3. Take initiative
It’s hard to visualise someone as a leader if she/he is always waiting to be told what to do. As we continue to grow in our career paths, it becomes less about your “stage,” and more about your own personal competence and development. If you know what to do, take the lead and do it.
4. Carpe diem!
Remember - opportunities are rarely offered , more seized. Take them and make them fit for you.
5. Think personally, act communally
Requests are better received communally. Want to make a change? Try “WE” would like this rather than “I” would like this.
Benefits to communal effort:
· Organisations consist of people working together
· Well-functioning groups are stronger than individuals alone
· Focusing on the team leads to better results
· Teams that work together well outperform those who don’t
· Success feels better when shared with others
Take home points:
Think about what would you do if you weren’t afraid ? AND THEN GO DO IT
Lean in to your future
Lack of confidence can become a self-fulfilling prophecy
You can’t please everyone - if you do, you’re not making enough progress
Done is better than perfect – whilst attention to detail is great, we have to accept that we “can’t do it all;” the right question is not “can I do it all” but “can I do what’s important for me? “
Leadership mantras!
1. “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence, creating a lasting change in your absence” – as defined by students at Harvard!
2. Close the leadership gap NOW - each individuals’ success can make success a little easier for the next!
3. Be grateful for what we have but dissatisfied with the status quo - we MUST keep going!
I hope you enjoyed this article. Please comment down below with your own thoughts on this topic!
Further reading:
Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
Wolfpack - Abby Wambach
How to own the room – Viv Groskop
