Despite how many skills, capabilities, and qualifications professional women can claim – and they are plentiful – there are still numerous barriers to accessing leadership opportunities. The metaphorical label for this inequity in the workplace was coined the ‘Glass Ceiling’ back in 1978. That’s over four decades since formal recognition of the disparity!
Many studies have shown that women work harder compared to men to access the same opportunities. This applies even more-so for women of color, who face a slew of unique additional challenges. Though progress has been made, there is still significant work to be done. What is there to do in the meantime?
While women, advocates and organizations work to remove these barriers – shatter the glass ceiling, as some say – to equitable pay, leadership positions and other aspects of careers, professional women can focus on individual professional development.
The Need for Professional Development
Professional development is a significant factor in workplace success. Though it can’t make up for the structural disadvantages, learning necessary leadership skills can make a positive difference. Whereas their male counterparts often receive mentorship or on-the-job experience to develop such skills, women often must seek out specific training and professional development programs.
Professional development programs can teach women how to:
- Improve job performance and document achievements accordingly
- Present themselves as – and ultimately be – more confident
- Negotiate successfully for promotions and salary raises
- Recognize unique barriers in the workplace and develop strategies to overcome them
- Network effectively, expanding possible opportunities
Many larger employers provide access to training programs designed to upskill employees. While these programs may have value, the quality of them varies greatly. Many also don’t address the unique challenges that are a result of the Glass Ceiling – meaning, the content is often generic advice and not always applicable to the employee’s work situation. Saying that, it is still well worth seeking these opportunities.
Of all the skills to work on, there are three important ones we strongly recommend professional women work towards improving. These are innovative thinking, resilience and self-advocacy. Developing these areas help women develop a strong foundation to further propel their careers.
Becoming an Innovative Thinker
Innovation is key to business growth and profitability which is why companies of all sizes are looking for employees who can bring and display innovative thinking to the workplace. Creativity – and the ability to present creative ideas – can help employers notice women in a competitive industry.
Improve Ideation Skills
Ideation is a creative process to generate, develop, and present ideas or solve problems. It’s more a way of thinking and problem-solving than a strict process, which makes it adaptable to different organizations and individuals. Aspiring leaders benefit greatly from effective ideation as they work to overcome obstacles and pave the way for innovation.
Nearly all professionals need to produce new ideas, and many do on the job. The people who stand out can do this predictably and communicate their ideas to stakeholders effectively. This is doubly so for those in leadership positions. Women in particular face additional challenges when bringing innovation to fruition — it is still unfortunately common to be overlooked or disregarded in favor of a male colleagues’ input.
The process of ideation follows these general steps:
- Identify the challenge to overcome or opportunity for improvement.
- Deconstruct the problem or opportunity into general components.
- Think analytically — gather other perspectives and approaches.
- Brainstorm a multitude of ideas — don’t worry about the details.
- Revisit the ideas and begin eliminating ones that won’t work.
- Select one or two ideas that do work and flesh out the details.
- Communicate the ideas to stakeholders.
Ultimately, a leader who can use ideation to generate innovative ideas while predicting and preemptively addressing challenges is invaluable to their organization.
Understand Diverse Perspectives
Every professional has had a different lived experience. True, people who embody similar demographic characteristics often have similar stories, but they’re still individuals. A good leader takes the time to humbly listen to and make room for voices other than their own — particularly marginalized voices.
These voices bring stories and perspectives that offer rich feedback when generating ideas and addressing organizational challenges. At the very least, a fresh mind may identify something that the current team has overlooked.
Have a Role Model, Be a Role Model
Look both above and below you — ahead and behind. What other women have done — or are doing — amazing things? What example are you setting — or want to set — for those who look to you in the same way?
Emulating those in a similar situation with more skills and experience offers a better understanding of one’s own leadership. Just the same, reflecting on your own actions from the perspective of someone earlier in their career keeps you self-aware and responsive.
Be Resilient
Ideally, women wouldn’t have to be particularly resilient. The need for this characteristic is a direct result of the additional stresses and challenges women experience in the workplace — studies show that women experience more work-related stress on average than men do. This can lead to health problems, issues in personal life and decreased productivity in the workplace.
Until structural and organizational changes are made, women pursuing leadership opportunities need to find ways to handle and mitigate the stress in way that doesn’t burn them out.
Practice Mental Agility
Though some stress is inevitable and healthy stress can even be beneficial, excessive or unhealthy amounts of stress can be incredibly detrimental to both the personal and professional aspects of a person. Given that women experience more stress than their male colleagues, this implies that women may end up having to compensate for underperformance or personal difficulties. This, in turn, increases stress and the cycle continues.
Learning to compartmentalize work stress from life — which may also be referred to as mental agility — is one way that women can protect their well-being as larger organizational changes take time. A mentally agile individual can recognize when they’re feeling anxious or stressed about work and make the conscious decision to not affect other aspects of work or home.
For those who don’t already do this, think of it as a mindfulness exercise. A stressful thought is on your mind so — rather than ruminate over it outside of the time used to solve the issue — you can acknowledge the thought and let it go. Someone may write it on a sticky note and promise to themselves to return later to address it.
Practice Adaptability
Having a plan is well-advised. Being able to adjust or abandon the plan entirely when it can no longer work is even more important. No matter how good an idea may have been, there are often too many moving parts for implementation to go off without a hitch.
Past a good-faith effort in addressing changes, the ability to make changes is incredibly beneficial for women leaders. Practicing mental agility and compartmentalizing the stress of unforeseen changes helps, too.
Hone Self-Advocacy Skills
In a healthy workplace, colleagues and supervisors advocate for teammates. However, they aren’t involved in your day around the clock, nor are they in your head. So, how do you communicate your needs and concerns clearly, directly and effectively in the workplace? An effective self-advocate knows:
- Her colleagues, their perspectives and how to communicate with them as individuals.
- How to be specific, focused and realistic about goals given the broader context.
- How to frame concerns constructively — ideally with proposed solutions — no matter how critical she must be. When and how to negotiate, pivot or stand firm.
The reality is that self-advocacy skills often come from a combination of education, practice and experience. Office culture also greatly impacts the content of self-advocacy — is it safe to speak up without retaliation? What steps are in place to protect the person speaking up?
It’s particularly common for younger women, earlier in their careers, to be intimidated by more experienced coworkers — often men. Working on self-advocacy skills can help overcome this challenge.
Finding Leadership Resources
Innovative thinking, resilience and self-advocacy are three essential skills any professional woman can develop. With proper guidance and effective goal setting, women in leadership can both improve their individual careers and help pave the way to make the workplace more equitable for those who follow.
Some common ways to acquire these skills are through education, professional development and mentorship. For example, Emory University’s Women in Leadership course is designed to give women the opportunity to build their skill set and network with other professional women.
If you’d like to learn more about what we do or how we do it, head here for information.
