Help women thrive at work

Research tells us that it is abundantly clear tht for women to reach their full potential, and for businesses to thrive, organisations must invest in their female workforce. Research by the Australian organisation ‘Women Rising’ says that 84% of women asked, say that the most important ingredient for them to thrive at work is a good relationship with their manager.

Here are five ways that leaders and managers can help women to thrive at work:

1. Invest in their career. 64% women stated investment in their career was essential for them to thrive at work and almost ¾ say they would leave their organisation if their employer did not invest in their career development. Career development is key for employers to retain women.

Recommendations:

- Performance review processes for female team members should include dedicated time to discuss each woman’s aspirations, current blocks and what they need to support their goals. Co-create a transition play to help them level up, with commitment to help them action it.

- Sponsor your women to participate in external workshops and women’s leadership programmes, to help them get clarity about their career goals, build confidence and reach their potential. (I have this exact programme available to you now).

- Consider your budget and ensure funding is allocated towards women’s development.

2. Help them build confidence. The Women Rising research states that only 6.5% feel confident all the time, and 45% feel confident only some of the time, or not at all. This is often impacted by their own inner critic and self doubt. This inhibits their ability to strive for career progression, and 38.5% reluctant to ask for a pay rise.

Recommendations:

- Learn how to identify low confidence in your team members, apply confidence-building language and strengths-based leadership into your management approach.

- Take time to learn how to support women to understand their inner critic more closely and the tools they can use to quieten that voice and take confident action.

- Celebrate successes widely and ensure credit is given to women for their work. Make an effort to praise, compliment and thank your team members for their positive attributes, effort and contribution – in person, via email or as a written note.

3. Help them avoid burnout and stay well. Only 8% are thriving at work and in the past 18 months, most women (81%) have experienced increased levels of stress in the workplace. 78% felt burnout it the past 18 months and 25% with manager responsibilities felt they were at risk of burnout due to their managerial responsibilities. The research dug deeper and discovered that the greatest contributor to women’s stress levels was too much workload (50%) and a similar percentage said that they didn’t set boundaries or said no, 51% avoid conflict and 45% were people pleasers.

Recommendations:

- Create a team culture that values and celebrates wellbeing, and act as a role model demonstrating positive work/life harmony.

- Support women in your team to identify and address common behaviours that lead to burnout such as perfectionism, people-pleasing, overachieving, reluctance to delegate or ask for help, and being self-critical. Create a speak-up environment where women can put their hands up and ask for help if they are struggling, without negative consequences.

- Don’t overload your team members with more work than they can handle. Check in that they are comfortable with their workload and help find solutions if it is too much.

4. Deal with bias in your workplace. A significant number of women are feeling the effects of negative bias at work. These include 74% saying they are talked over or interrupted and 64% saying someone else takes credit for their ideas or work. These are microaggressions and are bias in the workplace.

62% experienced negative bias due to their age. 57% of the women surveyed had been undermined by a male leader, 50% had experienced negative bias at work because of their gender, 20% due to their culture and 19% due to their race. Only 40% of women said their manager was an inclusive leader all of the time.

Recommendations:

- Take action to review your organisations approach to women bias and consider positive policies and leadership approaches to improve statistics.

- Run a campaign to help employees at all levels to understand what bias is, how it shows up (micro and macro aggressions), how it makes women feel and what can be done to eliminate it.

5. Provide better support and opportunities for mentorship. 84% of women surveyed said a good relationship with and support from their manager is what they need to thrive at work. 29% were not receiving enough support from managers and sponsors, and 32% are challenged by a lack of leadership competence and/or executive presence.

Recommendations:

- Ensure there are male allies in the workplace to help support women.

- Allocate funding to support women’s leadership development programmes and opportunities.

- Schedule check-ins with women in your team to find out what guidance and support they need from you.

What is abundantly clear from research, is that for women to reach their full potential, and for them to support their organisations to thrive, there needs to be a clear approach of conscious action – awareness, education and support for female colleagues.

Are you supporting your female workforce to thrive, enjoy their work experience and want to stay in your teams?

If you would like to discuss how I can work with your organisation to support this work, please visit my website www.lucyfernandezconsultancy.co.uk I look forward to meeting you soon.