At PA Life we’re devoted to bringing you the very latest news, advice and recommendations on a whole smorgasbord of topics that we hope are of interest to you in your professional lives.
Since our most popular stories seem to be those that provide suggestions on how to engender a better working relationship with your manager, we thought we’d ensure you get even more brownie points by offering a selection of news items of interest to the boss. In this edition, we take a look at the common pitfalls female executives face.
Barbara Annis, CEO and founder of her own business consultancy and Chair Emiritus of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard Kennedy School, has commissioned a study of 2,000 female executives around the world. Her research reveals an interesting trend of common problems faced by women in management roles.
Strategic networking is important
Women are natural networkers and they find it easy to introduce themselves to new people. However, they gravitate toward those they can relate to and forget that they have to be strategic. If a little voice tells you that you can’t walk up to a CEO or board member and say hello, ignore it.
Don’t make outlandish requests
Women who take leadership courses are often told to be bold and make the occasional unreasonable request to show that they’re in charge. Yet when they put that into practice, they’re accused of being pushy or too aggressive. Their internal dialogue then makes them second guess their ideas in the future.
Barbara suggests framing every request in a way that benefits the company or the boss. Women are skilled at getting other people involved, so they should use that to their advantage.
Sensible self-promotion is a useful tool
Men will often introduce themselves by stating their achievements, while women tend to understate their success. Even in interviews they assume their CV will speak for them and don’t vocalise the things they’ve done.
According to Barbara, women usually get promoted based on their record of success rather than their potential, so it’s important for them to speak up about their achievements without dwelling on the subject.
Women are harder on themselves
Barbara says there is a part of the brain called the anterior cortex, which is larger in women and controls our capacity to weigh options and collaborate with other people. Female rumination is the psychological term for a woman’s tendency to feed worry. She adds that they key to success is training yourself to let go of things that happened in the past, such as negative comments about your ability.
“If I work hard enough I’ll be noticed”
This is referred to as the “loyalty trap” and women are more susceptible to it. They feel they have to work harder in order to impress their boss, but it actually leads to them being taken advantage of and becoming invisible. Likewise, they don’t put themselves forward for important projects and take whatever is left over after the men have their choice. They also tend to become the ones doing all the work rather than delegating tasks to teams.
Make sure you choose projects that will put you in a leadership role, says Barbara, and speak up if you feel you’re not getting the recognition you deserve.
Stand your ground
Business negotiations often have a win-lose outcome and women try to avoid these situations through collaboration, even if it means backing down on certain important terms. Barbara encourages female executives to stay the course and stand up for their company’s best interests while being sensible about it. This will make clients take notice and respect them more.
Read the original article at tinyurl.com/nchp6f8
