Do women in the boardroom face a double standard? Do we have to be extra attentive to self-improvement to appear to be competent and recognized as effective?
Here are some comments that we’ve heard over the years regarding ‘self-improvement’ that are necessary for women to stay in the boardroom:
- Women need to learn a more positive approach to leading, encouraging others, thus being less bossy than men.
- When it comes to women in the boardroom, clothes speak volumes. It takes only a few seconds for people you’ve never met to form perceptions about your female authority and abilities by judging your attire.
- Women need to learn skills that will bring positive and powerful emotion to the workplace, and be better relationship-builders and better communicators than men (and apparently we can do this because our brains are more networked for language).
- Women need to learn alternative approaches to leading teams — encouraging more open discussion, cultivating talent and sharing credit. In fact, it would behoove women to read books on inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Perhaps sitting at the middle of the conference table rather than at its head and saying, “We are all in this together and I am part of it”.
With all of this emphasis on self-improvement to become successful in the boardroom (and all of it is good, no doubt), are we spending so much time trying to ‘measure up’, that we actually never make it there in time to make a real change?
Wow! Learning how to have authority in a mostly male dominated position, is a subtle and far reaching issue, indeed.
And, we haven’t even touched on how a woman’s skin and hair is supposed to look in the boardroom (trust me, being in the skin care industry, we’ve seen and heard an earful)!
Are you in the boardroom? Would you like to be? Please share us your thoughts on what you think is necessary for a woman to stay there!
