3 ways to advance women into leadership positions

According to a research by the Women’s Leadership Network, in 2013, the percentage of female principals in colleges was 41%, a rise since 2009, where the percentage was 36%. Things haven’t been so bright at higher levels as only 17% of boards are chaired by women, and the men in governance are twice more than the women.

Even though the state is improving, there is a stark difference in the number of men and women in leadership positions. This bias starts early and to combat this we first need to focus on the treatment of men and women in the education sector and need a proper model of development in schools and colleges. A few ways in which this can be done are:

BREAKING BARRIERS TO RECRUITMENT

Since women are more self-critical, they tend to count themselves out of the race if they don’t meet each and every listed criterion. To correct this, one of the things that can be done is that recruitment could be kept open for potential applicants before publishing full job descriptions. This would enable them to see how an organization worked before deciding if they would fit the job.

Mashable>

FLEXIBILITY AT WORK

With women being the primary caretakers, traditional methods of working can be very unsupportive of working women. Dave Coplin in his book ‘Business Reimagined’ talks about how a company that focuses on the outcome and impact, instead of the number of hours worked can get better results out of their employees.

COMPLEMENT NATURAL STRENGTHS

Both genders have their set of strengths and weaknesses. Sally Dicketts of The Guardian believes that leaders don’t have to be good at everything, “they need to co-ordinate and empower people in their team to achieve.”

ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/02/women-leadership-college-further-education