Women Leading The Way

I recently had the pleasure of being asked to author a letter of recommendation for a long-time friend of mine for a prestigious award recognizing women for their leadership – professional and personal demonstrations of excellence. The ATHENA Leadership Award was established in 1982 with the purpose of supporting, honoring and developing women leaders. It recognizes the strength, courage, wisdom and enlightenment of women around the world for their professional excellence, community service and for actively assisting other women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills.

As I reflected on my friend’s tremendous leadership impact on the world around her – I thought of her focus, energy, high expectations of self and others, community service, empathy and caring. It certainly made me think of all of the women I admire. Names like Mother Teresa, Sojourner Truth, Benazir Bhutto, Isabel Martinez de Peron, Michelle Obama and Yingluck Shinawatra came to my mind. All of these women leaders are not recognized just because of their gender (actually, in too many instances they are not given recognition because of their gender), but because they deliver positive impact, engage others and lead with many traits more prevalent in females.

Credits to: Amy Sherald, Hidemi Tada, S.M. Raza Unknown artist

And, I have to admit that the first person that came to mind was my mother. Truly a hero to me, she leads her family with compassion, energy, joy, and absolute confidence. In my opinion, she exemplifies all of the traits and characteristics that are often associated with women as they tackle the challenges of today’s professional, social and economic world – and does this with grace, empathy and caring. She sets the family traditions and establishes our common values. 

As I was looking at this from a business perspective, I pondered on whether women are fully valued for unique traits, qualities and capabilities they bring to organizations around the globe. A recent McKinsey & Company study shows that 88% of US corporate men believe that women have at least equal opportunities for advancement. Certainly there has been a change in the elevation of women to leadership roles in the business community – however, they still only hold approximately 4% of Fortune 1000 CEO positions. Clearly, there is much greater opportunity and need to recognize women leaders, and those that currently hold the top leadership positions, regardless of their gender, have a responsibility and obligation to help ensure that women are given a balanced opportunity to achieve, grow and contribute. It also begs the question of what corporations around the world are missing due to the lack of inclusion and women leaders at upper organizational levels.

The most widely held ideas of leadership, associated with strength and power, simply do not hold true in the future of global business, politics and almost every other aspect of life. From my viewpoint, thigher levels of emotional intelligence and compassionate intuition, traits often associated with women,  are too often overlooked in the professional environment.  In many instances, I have observed  female colleaguesprocess change, chaos and challenges in different ways than male counterparts. However, the passion, creativity, purposeful approach and strategic capabilities are equal to any colleague. As a male leader, this time to reflect reinforced my belief that this must be recognized and appreciated by those in decision-making roles so that further advancement of women leaders can be fostered. This shouldn’t be done because it feels like the right thing to do, but it must be done to facilitate the greater value-creation that will be achieved by having their full talents and skills benefit the organizations they lead. Likewise, greater efforts should be made to make this transformation happen more rapidly than recent progress has suggested.

I was humbled to be able to convey my thoughts on why my friend deserves the recognition of the leadership award, but I was rewarded by the forced reflection on all of those women leaders that I admire. More importantly, I am re-energized to focus on ensuring that every employee has the opportunity to bring their complete capabilities, unique attributes and full self to the work and leadership roles on our team. 

I know this is my responsibility, my obligation and – most importantly – my opportunity. I will strive even further to ensure that all of my colleagues recognize this too.

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal. ― Mother Teresa 

*Revisited blog posting