Celebrate how you chose to lead!

Is it just me, or do you, too, know women who you believed would have big careers – then did not?

A recent article in Harvard Business Review (September, 2013), in fact,  the cover story:  “The biases that still hold female leaders back – and how to overcome them” left me a bit confused.

Written by three women, all experts in their field,  it opened on workplace predisposition to favor male over female colleagues when opportunity for promotion arose, putting even the most aspiring women in weaker positions. 

The article was obviously well researched and extremely well written. What it left me wondering is if companies are being encouraged to develop programs that are designed to encourage women to seek higher leadership roles in the first place, then, mapping the ‘how to’ by encouraging them to think – and act – more like their male counterparts?

Not a great plan, I’m thinking!

I have always viewed, among the many natural leadership skills of women, the fact that we don’t think like men!  Nor, do we act like them.  But, WE DO TAKE ACTION – a premier leadership quality.

The article explained that women have fewer networking resources, and limited mentors compared to their male counterparts.  It encourages women to work among themselves, compare notes, support each other and collaborate – all of which I agree with.  It leaves me wondering if that is not a case of – and I use this comparison somewhat apologetically, but it does establish a basis for  comparison -  “the blind leading the blind”. 

Yes, of course women need to support women; that’s what we do every day at The International Women’s Leadership Association.  We collaborate with other organizations and push where we feel we are needed to push and pull when we feel we need to pull.

 

Here’s what we also believe: leadership is relative.  The food-chain of the universe makes most of us a leader in comparison to another in any given situation.  In another situation, roles may be reversed.  That’s a good thing; a necessary thing.

No leader works alone.  As the article points out, women are rated as going above and beyond in the performance of tasks; tasks, which men, innately are less skilled at.  So, when it comes to actually getting things done – who’s leading the army?  Who IS the army? 

Title aside, women continue to play higher and higher strategic roles in government, education and private and public business sectors alike.  I don’t think we need to apologize for how long it may have taken to be recognized for our contributions.

The article focuses on “second generation bias”.  Perhaps, one of the reasons it may have taken women a bit longer is that – oh, right, we were birthing and parenting that generation.

Here’s what I really want to say: don’t let your true womanhood be compromised for the sake of a title, a corner office or the pressure of others to make you feel you are less than what you can be because those things just might not be as important to you as others want them to be.

The power and the potential of women comes with our ability and capacity to decide for ourselves.  The social push to guilt women into wanting more – which typically comes at the cost of something else we value just as much -  is, perhaps, the greatest pressure women deal with.  Conversely, those who chose not to raise a family or to combine doing so in tandem with climbing the corporate ladder have been called-out by their female counterparts, maybe even moreso.

WOMEN:  lead where, when and to the extent you can every moment and move forward at the pace you feel is best for you (and your family). 

WOMEN:  seek the support of other women, but, not for approval for what you are, or aren't doing; you don’t need approval.

WOMEN:  embrace your God-given gender empowerment and celebrate that you have the right to choose how – and when – to put your greatest leadership skills to work and for whom.

Thank you to Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely and Deborah Kolb, who lead by example as these three women came together and collaborated on this provocative article; it got me thinking!

So, IS it just me, or do you, too, want to offer more support to those women among us who aspire to continue to reach higher and higher in our leadership role in the workplace as well as to appreciate those women among us who know their greatest leadership roles are in aspiring to raise the next generation -  daughters AND sons – who will, perhaps make “second generation bias” the last?  That is their success – and a brilliant career!

To the Harvard Business Review I politely wonder if, in choosing the “art” for this cover story, it might have been more appropriate to represent today’s woman as more than a 1950-ish cutout?

Maybe that’s part of the answer!