Only one in five leaders at the chief executive level is a woman. 80% of women who leave the workforce are seeking a better opportunity, according to Deloitte’s Women in the Workplace Study. Of those who leave to start their own business, though, fewer than two percent generate more than $1 million in revenue.For women’s history month in March 2019, it’s time to tell her story.
"As far as we’ve come seeking equality and respect in the workplace, women still are still largely underrepresented in places of power,” says Life Strategy Coach Donna Carlson. "The hard question is this: When we leave the workplace, are we bringing the glass ceiling with us?”
In her coaching programs for executive women, Carlson has found that many women are still being marginalized in top positions. In the Board room or in business negotiations, when confronted by a man in the presence of a male colleague, higher-ranking women report that men consistently direct the hard questions to a lower-ranking male colleague.
"A high-ranking executive woman once challenged me on the concept of breaking the glass ceiling,” Carlson explains. “Donna,’ she said, ‘some of us create our own glass ceilings.”
Carlson coaches executive women to command respect at any level in four ways:
- Use language that believes the best about all parties, especially yourself.
- Receive feedback as instruction, not criticism. It’s not about you.
- Assume nothing. Operate on what you know to be true.
- Believe the best you can do is enough, and that others are doing the best they can.
Carlson explains why we still need to talk about this at every level. “Even when women kick glass and make it to the top, the failure rate is high because we fail to acknowledge all of who we are. These four simple practices give us freedom to separate our value from our success and operate at a higher level of authenticity.” You can find Carlson’s research report on What Professional Women Want at 360LifeStrategies.com.
360º Life Strategies provides coaching, workshops and retreats for professionals to increase their workplace effectiveness and kick glass by developing a whole life strategy. Donna Carlson, Life Strategy Coach, is certified by the John Maxwell team, The Center for Creative Leadership and TTI Success Insights. She's also a master yoga instructor. Learn more at www.360lifestrategies.com. (Photo by Blue Fox Photography.)
