A considerable number of women do not know what it takes to succeed both in their careers and within their organizations. Because of this, as well as the need to balance the priorities of family, home career, and self, some women lack the confidence it takes to advance into leadership positions, although they have the potential.
From an individual perspectve, it is important to note that men generally are successful in taking full advantage of their informal networks to identify and obtain career development opportunities that enable them to climb the corporate ladder into top leadership positions. In contrast, women are more generally confined to and affected by their social positions in accordance with their gender, sexual orientation, race, physical ability, and class, all of which affect their career progress. Moreover, women are more likely to enter and exit the workforce, change careers, or shift the amount of hours worked, often due to the constraints posed by family needs.
Organizationaly, some companies lack the resources, knowledge, and tools required to support and advance high-potential female leaders into management, senior management, and executive positions. This is the case for a number of reasons: (1) organizations do not have the requisite financial resources to build a successful leadership development program; (2) organizations have an inability to recognize and leverage the unique leadership style of and need for diverse populations in leadership; and (3) organizations do not know how to develop this distinct population of leaders.
Further, many organizations lack a comprehensive and clear career planning and leadership development model that takes the uniqueness of women’s skills, abilities, and experiences into consideration. Most career development models are based on the experiences of white, middle-class males whose paths are generally linear, accompanied by increasing responsibility and authority, and evidenced by external artifacts of success, such as titles and salaries. These same career development models are also explicitly based on the values of individuality and autonomy.
Moreover, organizations lack diversity and inclusion initiatives that are considered strategic imperatives and not simply espoused values engraved on a plaque and stamped onto every piece of organizational literature.
Consequently, the question I pose is this: Where lies the responsiblity and the capability to develop women leaders?
Powered By Ringsurf
No comments:
Post a Comment