Written by: Sarah Needham, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
How female leaders can help you to get the nice words off the wall in the office & start living them in your business in 2022!
There are still too few female leaders in tech businesses but why does this matter to you? To your business?
There is an ever growing body of data that shows the businesses with higher levels of women in leadership:
have higher levels of engagement because they create more inclusive & open team environments that foster creativity & innovation;
have better internal communication;
are more likely to champion other under-represented communities within the business with mentoring, sponsoring & coaching;
have better long term business profitability.
So not only does it look good in the press but it makes good business sense! Female leaders have the skill sets you need to create sustainable growth & empower a diverse workforce to THRIVE!
So is putting a "quota" of women in place enough? Can this be a check box exercise to achieve these results!
NO, unfortunately no significant cultural shift is that easy, just putting bums on seats is not enough to achieve these results.
WHY?
Because, human beings are like plants, we need the right environment to thrive.
This means there is no way around creating an open & inclusive culture if you see the value in empowering a diverse group of employees to drive your business to sustainable growth.
I will go as far as to say businesses who cannot take the nice words off the wall & start living them will find themselves in crisis in the mid-term. People will leave or worse just dis-engage from your aspirations!
So it is a bit of a chicken & egg situation.
Empowering your female leaders to thrive means creating an open & inclusive culture; AND these women are the ones who can challenge you to create the culture to help the business thrive if they are empowered to do so!
To understand how to empower them we first need to understand what is holding them back.
Female leaders feel insecure because:
They often feel they cannot “win” against many of the cultural stereotypes;
They are judged & disliked (by both men & women) if they do not conform to stereotypes;
They are often brought up to put everyone else's needs first, meaning they struggle to look after themselves (which has been even more prevalent with levels of burnout due to additional stress from the situations COVID has led to);
Whilst growing up they will have also been discouraged from certain behaviors that are necessary for advancing your career, such as speaking up for yourself & taking risks.
All this leads to many women under-estimating themselves & being scared of making mistakes or looking silly. Couple this with many women trying to meet everyone's expectations & keep everyone else happy; this leads to an inordinate amount of stress.
The quandary here is women are least likely to ask for support when they feel vulnerable, or when they feel under-appreciated, or anxious! When they actually need it most!
So let’s look at the three enablers women leaders need to be able to thrive in a business!
alignment to the business values that form the basis of the business culture;
confidence in themselves & the value they bring;
a strong support community/ network & ally’s within the business.
Often a lot of time & energy is spent in creating business values but much less time & energy are invested in making them real & enabling the people in the business to live them.
Let’s look at point 2 - I have spent a lot of time working with Female leaders in Tech & I hear similar stories time & time again about how self-confidence & self-belief changes over time:
they start off young & believing they can achieve anything,
they get worn down over time & their confidence takes a beating & then;
they either leave, go through burnout, switch off or a few recognize with maturity (or often because of some life changing experience) the value they bring & step back in boldly.
If tech businesses are serious about equality; serious about creating inclusive environments where diverse teams can drive innovation they need to focus support on points 2 & 3 above to help women thrive at every stage of their career.
We need to support them to overcome their self-doubt & step in bravely to challenge the business to create an environment for themselves & others to thrive!
Based on research & experience working with female leaders in tech, we have designed a Mastermind peer group program for your business to do just that!
To help ambitious tech businesses nurture a community of female leaders to enable their business to THRIVE!
Does your business meet the criteria to join this program?
You are ambitious & forward-thinking tech businesses who are already trying to create an inclusive culture but struggling to achieve & retain female leaders OR
You have achieved a ‘quota’ of female leaders but are struggling to support them to thrive.
You have a DEI strategy in place but the business is not currently able to live into their values to drive innovation & creativity through diversity, equality & inclusion.
If this is you…let’s talk! Drop me a message because there are only three more programs available in Q1 2022!
If this is a key goal for your business this year, then let’s make it happen!
Sarah Needham, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sarah helps female leaders in tech stop apologising for being different and step boldly into their unique strengths to create positive change so they feel excited and energized each day! You see she is a coach with an extraordinary vision: “To create a world where everyone feels they can stand up and engage in discussion about what matters most”. She wants us all to take off our invisibility cloaks; to share courageously what we think and feel and then create the space to listen to other perspectives. Sarah believes that we are all unique for a reason and we should challenge ourselves to step proudly into our uniqueness, our own SUPERPOWER! As a coach, she challenges herself to inspire people & building supportive communities where people can thrive. Sarah’s work brings together her three core values: technology, sustainability and challenging others to embrace their uniqueness. She speaks boldly & shares courageously about what is important to her in creating a more sustainable future for life on earth! Sarah is an engineer with many years as a leader at one of the world's leading global engineering corporations. She is British ex.pat living in Potsdam, Germany with her husband, two adopted daughters, two cats and dog!
