Celebrating International Women's Day: A Reflection on Leadership and Gender Diversity

As we celebrate International Women's Day on the 8th of March, I find myself diverging from my initial plan to discuss the future of our daughters (I will come back to that at another time). The plethora of insightful posts on LinkedIn recently gives me confidence that the conversation around the work that remains is vibrant and ongoing. Instead, I aim to share personal learnings that underscore the critical role leaders play in enhancing the promotion and visibility of women in leadership and senior positions.

Early in my career, I held the belief that job promotions should solely focus on finding the right person for the role. This perspective, while ideal in theory, overlooks the nuanced influence of traditional biases. My journey has been one of continuous learning, including recognizing several key factors that impact the promotion and development of talent, particularly for women. These factors are:

1. Role Profiling: Role profiling often emphasizes specific attributes desired in a candidate, potentially sidelining the actual caliber required for the role. This practice can inadvertently introduce bias, steering the definition of role requirements toward traits traditionally associated with men. To counteract this, it's essential to focus on the core competencies and potential of candidates, ensuring that job descriptions are inclusive and reflect the diversity of talent available.
2. Experience Requirements: Setting overly specific experience requirements can restrict access to roles for individuals who, despite not having identical past roles, possess transferable skills and untapped potential. Leaders should value diverse experiences and the unique perspectives they bring, rather than seeking candidates who have walked a conventional path.
3. Mirroring: The tendency to select candidates who reflect our own backgrounds or experiences limits the diversity of thought within teams. Diversity in leadership is not just a metric to aspire to; it's a strategic advantage that drives innovation and success. Embracing candidates who bring different perspectives and experiences enriches team dynamics and leads to more robust decision-making processes.
4. Training and Development: Traditional approaches to training often focus on enhancing current capabilities rather than unlocking new ones or preparing individuals for future roles. By prioritizing development opportunities that broaden skill sets and encourage growth, we can create pathways for diverse talents to ascend to leadership positions, thereby challenging the status quo and fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation.

Understanding these dynamics is crucial, particularly in contexts where historical trends have favored men, leading to imbalanced representation in leadership roles. By actively working to mitigate these biases, leaders can contribute to a more inclusive and equitable workplace.

A personal experience that significantly shaped my approach involved a dialogue with an HR executive about ensuring a balanced representation of male and female candidates for a position I was filling. Initially resistant, I was educated about the unconscious bias this resistance represented and that the reason this was a policy was to address a need to break patterns of behaviour however well intended. This experience has stayed with me since and has shaped my recruitment strategy to prioritize underlying capabilities over specific experiences, opening the door to a broader and more diverse candidate pool.

Moreover, my interactions with women leaders, whether within my own team or in mentorship roles, have been greatly educational. They've highlighted the importance of adaptability, listening, and support, regardless of gender. These lessons have not only helped me in supporting women in my team but have also resonated with individuals who may not fit the traditional mold, whether due to personality, engagement style, or their approach to challenges and stepping out of comfort zones.

To summarize, leadership is an ongoing journey of learning and adaptation. My personal experiences have taught me the value of inclusivity and the need to continuously evolve my leadership style to support the diverse needs and potential of all team members. As we celebrate International Women's Day, let's renew our commitment to creating environments where everyone, regardless of gender, can thrive, lead and shape their own career journey.

Of course this is just my view, I would love to hear other perspectives as well in how experience in promoting diversity have changed your own leardership style, or not.