With years of experience in a leadership position What do you think – What Women want in the workplace for them to grow to take on leadership roles.

Nowadays, most of the organizations are making a conscious effort to include women at leadership levels as they are seeing an increase in revenue and market value. However, just hiring diverse candidates will not help unless companies provide a conducive environment for their growth.
Women aren’t looking for anything different than men; except for an inclusive workplace – where women are given equal opportunity and equal appreciation.
Women need a workplace that makes them feel more valued.
Women need to be given challenging roles so that they can reach their fullest potential. In many instances, women are not offered senior roles or managerial roles, simply because it is “assumed” that they will not be able to stretch or ‘balance the work-life’.
Women need to be given opportunities without the prejudice of non-performance.
They need to be coached, encouraged and most importantly be given the confidence, that they have the potential to grow into larger roles and eventually to the leadership position in an organization.

Conventional wisdom says that women hit a “glass ceiling” as they advance that prevents them from reaching senior leadership positions, the biggest obstacle that women face is the first step up to manager thus more women getting stuck at the entry-level? How much do you agree to this why?

Yes, I agree. There is a fewer number of women at managerial roles than at the IC level or entry-level.
The reason for this is because the ratio of women at entry-level is far less as compared to men. The factors behind this are – lack of girls enrolling in schools, fewer enrolments in colleges, and various social obligations. A lot of women candidates do not opt for employment after graduation due to family restrictions, a few get rejected in the biased hiring process, and so eventually, it’s only a handful of talent who finally becomes employed.
If we can change this ratio, we will have a lot more women getting hired and thereby many more women automatically rising the job hierarchy. And for this to happen we need necessary reforms in the education system, social system, and economic upliftment attached to women’s employment.

The current recruitment environment suggests gender diversity is part of the strategic agenda for most organizations, while many department owners are asking questions on the relevance of diversity over merit, how hiring managers should deal with this situation?

Hiring solely based on gender or ethnicity is unfair, and it is unlikely to lead to any good hires for the company. Most often, the question of gender credibility is a result of the department owners/ hiring manager’s unconscious bias. My answer to this is to have a clear, measurable, and an unbiased evaluation process of hiring candidates. This process should be able to clearly define the skills along with a set of core values that are required for the job. The recruitment team needs to work very closely with the department owners. Recruiters need to design innovative ways of attracting diverse talent, starting from having an ‘inclusive’ JD, to sourcing more diverse candidates, and finally onboarding them.

There has always been the unconscious bias between genders, what initiatives can organisation take to reverse this deep-rooted thought.

This needs a huge shift in mindset for both genders.
Women can no longer be considered as a “weaker gender”, but should be considered as a gender who can complement, bring in a different perspective, and creates a better workplace. There needs to be more acceptability of “Who we are and why we are the way we are”.
Here are a few options on how we can create a more inclusive workplace-
a) Create programs to make employees understand the concept of unconscious bias. Create more open communication channels. Training and coaching to educate employees, including the leadership team on unconscious bias.
b) Top-down communications from the Leadership about inclusion and setting the tone for the company.
c) Creating a conscious effort to include women in the decision-making process, hear their thoughts and ideas.
d) Create women champions/role models and mentors.
e) Increase the ratio of diverse candidates starting from entry-level to leadership roles.
At the same time, there is an enormous change also expected from women.
Here are a few things that women at work also needs to improve –
a) Need to be more assertive and confident
b) Be ready to take up additional responsibilities or higher roles. Most often, women turn down roles as they fear failures, work overload, less family time, less flexibility or work-life balance.
c) Set clear professional goals. It is not just a job to balance life’s expectations and expenses.
d) Network and seek sponsorship. Women role models should mentor other women in the team.
e) And most important, don’t allow yourself or others to take you for granted. Learning the art of saying ‘NO”.

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