Women Supporting Women

Many of the women that attended this month’s professional webinar are in industries that are male dominated and competition to break into the upper ranks can be fierce. Affinity Bias is the much more educated way of identifying and explaining that the ‘boys club’ does not want to admit others who do not look or act like themselves into the ranks.

Insecurity allows the paradigm of scarcity to happen regarding the presence of women in leadership roles. What if there could be an unlimited number of women in leadership? Competition would look different if multiple high achievers made it to the top.

We collectively have come together to support one another. Mentorship is always discussed. And I am grateful that we have a few tenured women in our ranks to bestow wisdom. But these select few women who have made it cannot mentor all of us. It is up to us to be the tide that raises all boats.

The truth is that there is a lot of conformity to unhealthy norms in corporate culture. Being an assertive woman, I have ruffled more than a few feathers. Unfortunately, I have had several bosses who did not know how to support me. I have not always been given the grace and kindness to allow me to find my space. In my personal journey, I have found how important it is to know your worth, have your own voice and identity. It is because of this journey, I have chosen to be a change agent.

Today’s fight is for the identity of what female leadership styles represents in the workplace. Women in leadership have for too long been told to conform to a more masculine leadership style or any leadership style that is not their own. This effectively silences not just the woman but the individual. The individual who was worthy of the promotion is now told to change and shed some of the qualities that made them successful.

Asking a leader to confirm is the opposite of innovation in the workplace and a marker of a stagnant or potentially dying company culture. The only consistent thing in life is change. It takes a lot of different voices to bring perspective to the changing landscape. When you consistently silence some of those voices you lose out on opportunity.