International Women’s Day – why women make great leaders

Tuesday March 8th will be International Women’s Day, 2022 (#IWD2022). On their website they ask us to imagine a gender equal world, with no bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.

Now, imagine this within business and leadership.

If you were to look at business success, making sure women are in leadership roles is a no-brainer. Companies with greater gender diversity in their senior leadership teams are significantly more profitable than those without.

That’s a fact!

A report from McKinsey & Company showed that for every 10% increase in gender diversity, earnings (before interest and taxes) rose by a glaring 3.5%.

Women in leadership roles impact a company’s bottom line, in a profitable way.

But why do women make such good leaders?

• they provide a different set of skills to men
• women offer imaginative perspectives
• structural and cultural differences that drive effective solutions
• they have a more collaborative approach to teamwork
• increased access to compassion and mentorship

We see many examples of these leadership traits in the clients and associates that we work with, including

Ruth, Silke, Tanja from TÜV Rheinland, Andrea and Claudia from Jungheinrich, Stefanie and Silvana from Hapag Lloyd, Catrin from Karl Storz, Fernanda from Benteler, and many more.

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The theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias and they want us to focus on breaking the bias in our communities, workplaces and educational establishments.

Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias is a barrier to women progressing in the workplace.

We can help with our bias-busting workshop Unconscious Bias...

Unconscious Bias – Leadership Development Course

We understand that Bias is a natural inclination of our minds and neuroscience shows that up to 99% of our thoughts can be unconscious. Within business this can lead to false assumptions about ourselves and others that can have a negative impact on relationships and performance.

We created the course to help identify biases and give tools to mitigate them to be a professional and effective leader.

As a result, attending the course will help you:

• learn about biases and those in your organisation
• practice techniques and strategies to mitigate unconscious bias
• engage with others and learn from their experience and perspectives

Women in leadership roles is increasing

The global share of women in senior management roles is increasing, with 87% of global mid-market companies having at least one woman in a senior management role. But progress is slow.

Staggeringly, it will still be 170 years until women achieve economic parity on a global scale, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report.

We cannot and, more importantly, should not wait this long. If we can all work together to #breakthebias, we can definitely move towards a world where it is gender equal with no bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

Are you with us? Will you #BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day?