Are you supporting the women in your organisation?

Are you supporting the women in your organisation to reach their potential so your company can reach its full potential?

In Australia today, women make up just over half of Australia’s total population. More women than men are now educated at secondary schools and universities, and more women than men graduate from university with bachelor degrees (The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade).

Over 50% of your clients are women.

Globally, companies are beginning to understand the importance of having a gender balance in teams. However women are still not supported (enough) to reach senior positions and business is missing out on the opportunities that come with having a balance of gender on senior leadership teams.

Importantly on the senior leadership teams that report directly to the CEO’s of organisations. Women need to be supported to develop leadership capabilities in profit and loss roles, and roles that report directly to the CEO’s where they are able to contribute to and influence the business.

“Over and over again, studies have shown significant improvements in decision-making quality in more gender balanced leadership teams (usually at least one third each from both genders). Women clearly bring new perspectives and skills to the table.” – Avivah Whittenberg-Cox.

Why is this important to your organisation?

The biggest social change over the past three decades is the large scale entry of women into the workforce (Women Work and Success).

The world of work is changing and organisations need flexibility to compete and flourish in our changing world. Having women on your senior team brings a more holistic approach to decision-making and success. Supporting the women in your team to reach their full potential will ultimately result in your business reaching its full potential. How? Research is showing that having gender balance (more women in leadership positions) results in stronger financial returns for companies.

How can you support the women in your organisation to reach their full potential?

A place to start is to understand what factors are important for women to feel successful. Women use holistic measures for success rather than one dimensional factors such as financial security and academic or work related achievements.

The top three factors that contribute to success in your career identified in the Women, Work and Success survey by Perspectives Coaching in 2006 were: ‘Passion for what you do’ (54%); ‘Hard work and determination’ (44%) and ‘The ability to get along with others’ (38%). When asked what support they wanted their companies to offer them to achieve greater career success 45% of the 563 women surveyed wanted management skills training, 42% wanted coaching and 41% wanted flexible working environments.

In an article for the Harvard Business Review Alice Eagly and Linda L Carli recommend that business needs to “Bring women out of support roles and get them into the business of doing business”.

Linda Murray from Athena Coaching recommends that you take time to understand how women like to be remunerated. Recognition, acknowledgement and flexibility tend to be preferred currencies over money.

“Helping women reach their full potential requires equal investment in building capability, self-confidence and open communication” says Murray.

Who are the talented women in your organisation? What roles are they currently in? Women typically will undersell their abilities. It’s important that women take equal time to look at their strengths rather than focusing solely on their deficiencies. It’s a habit we need to break! Speaking to a senior female executive recently highlighted this trend.

She mentioned that when the CEO of the multinational company that she works for suggested that she took on her current role she spent an hour telling him why she wasn’t suitable for the role. She was fortunate that he quickly stopped her selling herself out of the role and redirected her towards all the reasons he knew she was right for the position. A position she continues to thrive in.

What is the culture of your organisation? Is it one where both men and women are encouraged to develop to their full potential?

Identify and provide opportunities to enable women to continue to develop their leadership skills and to identify where women sabotage their success and how to manage this.

Provide senior mentors both internally and externally.

Take time to understand what drives and motivates the women in your company so that you can all succeed together.

Pollyanna Lenkic is the founder of Perspectives Coaching, an Australian based coaching and training company. In 1990 she co-founded a specialist IT recruitment consultancy in London, which grew to employ 18 people and turnover £11 million ($27 million). In this blog Pollyanna answers questions from our readers on issues they are experiencing leading or being part of a team.  She offers insights on teams and team dynamics. For support and information on team days run by Perspectives Coaching see here. Her previous Blog for SmartCompany, 2nd Time Around was about the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned building a business the first time round and how to do it better second time round.