Did you realize that all this while we have been overlooking almost half of the population?

Not anymore!

It is time to explore the leadership potential of women leaders.

If you have read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, you’d know how we find fewer women in the workforce. When you join the workforce, you have a lot of other women who accompany you. But, as we move up in the chain, the number of women decreases and almost becomes negligible.

There are few women in the meetings and even fewer women in the decision-making committee. And it is not that women leaders can’t help in strategic leadership roles; they are just not accepted that widely.

In fact, men often seem to exhibit an aversion toward female leaders. This is because we have been brought up to think that leadership role can only be assumed by men, not women.

Let’s change that thinking and empower women to take up leadership roles.
Here’s what you can do it.

Engage

The first step towards using women in leadership roles is engaging them. Hold a conference, encourage your women employees, and push them to take up leadership positions.

If not that, then HR managers can even launch a campaign specific to women to encourage more participation from women. This is not to say that you should appoint a woman even when they don’t match the skill requirement. But, you should push women to take leadership roles openly.

Declare

Create brand values that attract women. Take Accenture, for example. Women love to join this company.

Why?
Because they are known for empowering women through their policies and environment.

Do you have to harbor a similar culture?

Not necessarily. No one is asking you to become a women-oriented brand. You can promote the brand values that women look for. It will automatically encourage more women to join.

Super-charge Your Network

This pointer is both for businesses as well as women. HR managers should super-charge their network to find women who can take up leadership positions. And candidates should super-charge their system to have people become their brand ambassadors.

Fail

Organizations should encourage learning, which comes with a lot of failing. If you promote a woman of the organization to a leadership role, support them even through failures. Even men face failures when they first step foot in any leadership role. So, why not offer this opportunity to women too?

This only means that you need to allow failure to help women to grow in their leadership position. However, don’t forget to review their overall growth and performance as a leader.

Radiate Confidence

Often women have to overcome their self-doubt to take up a leadership position. Even when they are the team leaders, they have to push back their doubts and overcome fear. Of course, it is the same with men, too, but they are naturally more confident in taking these roles.

HR managers should implement strategies to make women confident in their roles. You would obviously know if a person can handle the position. When you find this person, encourage them, confide in them.

Take Help from Men

One of the best methods is to conduct a meeting and ask the men of your company to promote women. They should be more supportive and less resistant to the idea of having women in leadership roles.

The self-doubt in women arises mostly because of unsupportive nature of men. Make men your allies.

Conclusion

It is naïve of organizations to assume that only men can take up leadership roles. This is not openly discussed, but the need for hiring a man in a leadership position is ingrained in us. Even HR managers would prefer a man over a woman of higher qualification. This is because it all comes naturally to us.

But, it is possible to move past this set-pattern and hire women in leadership roles. Imagine how you would be bringing a change in the overall thinking process and execution of your organization?