Women Taking The Lead

The empowerment of women across the world is one of the most remarkable revolutions over the decades. As women, we face unique challenges as leaders, whether we work in the corporate world or as business owners. There seems to be a large gap between female leaders who too easily sacrifice authority, and iron-fisted women who never budge once their minds are made up. Unfortunately, neither approach is effective in a long-term leadership position.

Women may face unique challenges in developing a leadership style. Some struggle with managing others while maintaining a “good girl” image. They don’t want to be ignored, but they don’t want to be seen as too pushy, either. It’s a balance to find a style that’s effective and feels like a good fit. Below are just four of the many guidelines we hope you can use to help you find your leadership style:

Be Bold
Boldness is essential for leading. To grab the attention of your bosses, you need to chew glass and confidently make your point not showing a hint of self-doubt. Have a strong and authentic personality, courage fueled by a high level of integrity, and a dose of good judgment. This should give you the confidence to stand out.

Take those challenges, dare to take risks, and don’t mind making mistakes! At the end of the day, you will learn from them and become an expert in your profession and a better you.

Know Your Strengths
Get to know your signature leadership style inside-out. Be aware of what you’re good at, and consciously play to your natural strengths as much as possible.

Ask a few of your colleagues what they consider to be the strengths of your leadership style.

Stretch Your Leadership Style
Alongside playing to your strengths, actively work to stretch into the leadership style you find more difficult.
Most successful leaders can draw on and integrate all leadership styles, dependent on the situation. One size definitely does not fit all.

Combining your team’s leadership strengths with yours will create a more productive work environment. The best leaders are not well-rounded…but the best teams are.

Identify your leadership style stretch areas, and find ways to authentically integrate them with your natural style. Review the various strengths of your team or company. Who on your team has strengths that particularly complement your own leadership style, and how could you use these better?

Be True to Yourself
If you’re not being genuine, people will see right through you. Genuine passion creates trust with the people around you and builds connections. Integrity, authenticity, and walking your talk are the foundations of building great internal and external relationships.

The most valuable thing you have to offer is yourself. Whatever your leadership style is, it is uniquely yours. Own it, have confidence in it, trust that it’s not about becoming something completely different.

“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”
-Dolly Parton

We want to take the time to acknowledge every single woman in the world. Thank you for being a motivation to the rest of us who is still trying to find our feet in the workforce, you are truly an inspiration!

Happy Women’s Day.

 Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Stuart Miles