Empowering women for better balance in the workplace

Despite efforts to balance gender, most organisations have a disproportionate number of men in senior roles. Dawn Leane explains how we can redress the balance by focusing on what women really need.

The importance of gender balance in the workplace is well established. Yet, despite much discussion and policy development, a significant gender imbalance persists at senior level in most organisations.

Information and insight are both critical to developing interventions, which can address this imbalance. Much of the available research does little more than compare men and women in the workplace, however.

While this approach does have value, it is only one aspect of a highly complex issue, as explored in Women in Business: Navigating Career Success, published in 2012 by Fiona Dent and Viki Holton.

Rather than contrasting their experiences to those of their male counterparts, the book focused on women's experiences and examined the factors that either encourage or inhibit their progress.

In one part of the research, Dent and Holton asked participants what career advice they would offer other women. Respondents highlighted the following:

• Early opportunities to be visible (such as leading a key piece of work or project);
• Support from a variety of sources (including a coach or mentor, colleague, family or friends –  87 percent identified their manager as a critical source of career support); and
• The need to be ambitious and intentional.

Early opportunities

Women often get fewer opportunities than men to take on significant assignments. They can also find that their ideas are less likely to be heard and recognised. As such, women can miss out on meaningful developmental feedback.

The Accenture report, Getting To Equal 2018: Young Leaders, revealed that women aged 30 and under will experience several barriers to their advancement within their first five years of working.

This result is supported by McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s Women in the Workplace 2021 report, which found that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 86 women are promoted. McKinsey termed this phenomenon 'the broken rung', which leads to an unbalanced talent pipeline.

Women must close the early gaps in hiring and promotion, improving their visibility by stepping forward to take on key projects and assignments.

Available supports

Dent and Holton identified that women avail of various supports inside and outside the workplace. For example:

• Sponsors: senior leaders of any gender who act as sounding boards and advocates, often facilitating the development of key network connections.
• Mentors: colleagues who support and guide based on their experience, offering a safe environment to ask questions and get advice. Mentors can be of any gender and exist inside or outside the organisation.
• Executive coach: this person takes a non-directive role. A coach helps women develop strategies and action plans by unlocking their self-awareness and capabilities. The skills and behaviours developed through executive coaching are enduring.
• Networking: Women often don't have access to a network early in their careers. As networks are usually vital sources of information, this can limit their opportunity to make essential connections. Women must invest in building and maintaining strategic network connections.

Being ambitious and intentional

The key for women keen to increase their visibility and support in the workplace is to develop a ‘professional brand.’ This is what others say about you, and it is often overlooked by women.

To change this and improve your chances of getting ahead in the workplace, I recommend that you start to think strategically about the messages you want to convey to colleagues, what these messages represent, and who your 'brand ambassadors' should be.

Dawn Leane is Founder of Leane Leaders and Leane Empower.