Career Planning for Female STEM Leaders: A How-To Guide

I have been provided varying perspectives on career planning over the course of my career. Some leaders have taken a very hands-off approach, believing that my career was my own responsibility. As an early career researcher, career planning was never discussed with me, or any of the other women I worked with. When I joined the public sector, elements of career development were factored into annual performance and planning discussions. However, I observed and experienced that most leaders didn’t really invest in the opportunity to support their staff’s career development.?

As a leader, I always prioritised career development and planning for my team – ensuring I understood where they wanted to take their career in the next 3-5 years; knew the skillsets they wanted to develop; offered learning and experiential opportunities to develop those skills; kept my ear open for their next possible role; and supported their applications for those roles. It was important to me that I use my experience and access to help them develop, to become the best they could. Particularly women, because they so often missed out on development opportunities (though not on my watch!). I will always cherish the gratitude from one of my team leaders for the proactive and meaningful way I had supported their career development, something they hadn’t experienced from previous leaders.

For women (and other underrepresented individuals), development support throughout their career is critical for them to realise their potential in STEM.

In the past few editions of Rising STEM Leaders, I introduced the Pathway to Leadership Diversity Framework, which outlines a holistic approach to leadership development for women in these sectors that integrates formal, social and experiential learning – over the four stages of IMPLEMENT, AUGMENT, ACCELERATE and EMBED.

?This framework is explored in depth in my white papers Navigating Diversity in STEM and Advancing the Cyber Security Sector, along with relevant case studies.

The fourth stage of this leadership development framework is to EMBED leadership development through robust career planning.

STAGE 4: EMBED

Effective career planning, incorporating leadership development and progression, brings the IMPLEMENT, ACCELERATE and AUGMENT stages together to ensure STEM women are empowered to become the best leaders they can. It also supports leadership succession planning – building a strong leadership pipeline for your organisation.

Recommendations to leverage the impact of career planning

1. Implement meaningful career progression planning at all levels in your organisation, underpinned by appropriate learning development plans consisting of formal, social and experiential learning opportunities that are supported, prioritised and resourced.

a. Have clear and defined pathways for professional development and promotion that are inclusive and flexible.

b. Introduce meaningful professional development plans for all staff.

c. Ensure equal and flexible access to professional development for women at all levels.

2. Leverage a skills matrix to identify future STEM leaders. Address skill gaps by implementing those activities identified in the IMPLEMENT, ACCELERATE and AUGMENT stages (including tailored leadership development programs, mentoring, sponsorship, experiential development opportunities) that focus on developing female employees and preparing them for leadership roles.

3.??Use career planning to develop a succession plan for all leadership roles in your organisation.

4.??Review performance evaluation processes and ensure they are consistent and inclusive – free of bias or discrimination.

5.??Communicate promotion and professional development opportunities via timely and transparent processes.

6.??Link leaders’ accountability to staff talent management through performance assessment as a key performance indicator.

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EMBED with our tailored leadership development support

Aya Leadership partners with STEM and security organisations to apply the Pathway to Leadership Diversity framework to their organisation’s context and strategic goals. I can help you to accelerate tailored leadership development that leverages sponsorship and experiential learning through a range of existing female leadership development programs, or design something more bespoke.

Regardless of whether you have a big or small budget, or no budget at all, if you are a STEM-related or cyber security organisation that wants to invest in outstanding tailored female leadership development, please reach out, I would love to help get you on the right track and am happy to chat.

Leadership development is not gender exclusive, and we also have a range of gender inclusive tailored workshops to support leaders and their teams – please reach out for more details.

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