[January 12, 2020] Over the past few decades, we’ve seen a continuous rise in the percentage of women holding leadership roles. The numbers aren’t equivalent to the number of men in leadership positions, but I believe that we will get there in the near future.
So for all the fabulous women out there that are thinking about taking up leadership roles, I’ve compiled a list of strategies that you can follow to help boost your leadership game.
5 Strategies That Female Leaders Must Follow:
Build Your Credibility
I recently held a survey in a web app development company in Dallas to examine and remove any gender bias and discrimination. One of the questions in the survey was “Which gender has more credibility?”, around 80 percent of the attendees felt that men are perceived to be more credible in the workplace.
For building credibility, you can follow Covey’s four core principles of credibility:
- Always uphold integrity
- Make sure that your intent is mutually beneficial.
- Make sure that you have the talent, attitude, and knowledge to complete the assigned tasks.
- The positive results you deliver are an essential component for developing credibility.
Leverage Your Skills
Women have their own unique skills and talents, however, I’ve noticed that women tend to ignore or downplay their strengths and try to pick up on more masculine skills. As a leader, you should understand and leverage your own unique skills.
For example, instead of cutting in and boldly trying to dominate others, you can come off as someone that is intelligent and courageous
Speak Up and Speak Often
One of my favorite sayings is “The future belongs to those who ask for it today”. So speak up and don’t hesitate to ask for what you want or need. Even if you are not used to speaking up and being assertive, be brave and do it anyway. Learn to be confident and assertive, if you can’t do it on your own, find a mentor and learn from them.
Do Not Be Transactional
Do you know what’s the opposite of transformational leadership? It’s transactional leadership. I’ve mentioned some qualities of transactional leaders below:
- They choose not to get involved with their team.
- They only step in to take charge of situations when problems get severe.
- The only time they engage with their subordinates is when they have to get some work done and order them around.
This type of leadership can be unhealthy for your team members and can be detrimental especially for female bosses. This is why it’s essential that women focus on transformational leadership by showing their strengths as well as empathy.
You are Not Being Bossy
Have you ever noticed that starting from a young age when a girl speaks up and takes charge, they are called bossy? But, when boys behave in the exact same manner, they are called leaders. This is one of the major reasons why women are less likely to pursue leadership roles. Influencer female leaders like Beyoncé are highlighting the fact that there is nothing wrong with voicing your opinions and speaking up. They are making an effort to encourage ambitious girls to speak up and come out of their shells.
Conclusion
I strongly believe that women have a tendency to become incredible bosses and managers. All they have to do is leverage their natural strengths, put them into action and follow the above-mentioned strategies. Consequently, with the world starting to pay attention to women’s rights, now is an excellent time to step forward.
Hi Ms Hunter. Do you have other articles we could read? Please post some if you do. Thank you!
Hi Mark. Actually this is my first article on ‘leadership’. I have other articles about design, social media, and mobile apps. Let me know if you’re interested in reading them. I’ll drop their links.
Thank you, Khloe for responding. I see that a number of our leader community appreciated your work.
Keep up the good work on leadership.
I agree with your blog article but I must add that what you say applies to everyone, not just women. It is a view today that women are held back in the workplace. I’m not so sure about that – I’ve never personally seen it. What I do see is that women hold themselves back and do so for a variety of reasons unrelated to the workplace.
Hi Georgie
You’re right that the points I’ve mentioned can be applied to both genders, but, there are certain things I wanted to point out specifically for women. Because there are certain factors that cause women to hold themselves back.
Like their approach being highlighted as ‘bossy’ and fearing that their efforts will be overshadowed by male leaders if they use their own skills (fear of failure and therefore not speaking up). These are some things that I’ve mentioned from experience.
Asides this, setbacks caused when you enter the leadership realm can be internal as well as external. So I think women can be excellent leaders if they pinpoint these issues and do their best to tackle them.
“Do not be transactional”. I’ve never heard this put quite that way but it makes sense. People who work with their team only when it suits their needs are those people who are also creating obstacles for others. I’ve seen it in my workplace and it’s difficult to be on this type of team. Senior leaders at our company should be leading their team leaders a lot better.
I was thinking the same thing Eric. I would think we’ve all had that unpleasant experience with a “transactional” leader. Not a good thing.
Also new to me also. I liked the article and thought it was well laid out and easy to understand. These are the kind of short, to-the-point articles that I especially like. Little tidbits of info adds to my overall leadership knowledge and can be helpful for the busy person.
Excellent article. Much appreciated.
Yes, a very nice surprise.
Thank you Jerome 🙂
Hi Khloe, very nice article. Thank you for your contribution to General Satterfield’s leadership website. I especially like your “speak up and speak often” comment. But we should add that what you speak about should be relevant. Well done!
Yes, Ms Hunter has done well here. I’m glad that this leadership blog allows a variety of folks to make a contribution. ?
I give her all thumbs up. ????
Hi Lynn
I’m glad you liked my article.
You’re right, relevancy is also important. In fact, it is also necessary for building credibility.