With as many women as men in middle management positions and with women achieving more high quality degrees than men, finally, after decades of waiting, one would think that we’d have diversity in boardrooms and senior management teams. Indeed, there are some hopeful signs that women are beginning to find their way out of the glass labyrinth of leadership.
In a recent empirical investigation of 1,167 female and male C-suite executives, from different industries, we found no meaningful differences between the way men and women rate themselves on 12 leadership behaviours attributed to successful global leaders. (There were minor aberrations in some industries with women, in fact, rating themselves higher on emotional intelligence and team building than men). This is an indication that women have the confidence in their abilities to make it to the top. And yet, only 5 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO positions and just under 17 percent of corporate board positions are currently held by women.
So, if we want to progress successful leadership for the contemporary complex and diverse business world, we need to enable gender diversity not just in the workforce but in the leadership domain and recognise the disparity of leadership practices – adopted by men and women based on their unique strengths. I argue that leadership development programmes have to play a role in promoting this diversity of leadership.
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Women in the Boardroom is a Toptalent leadership programme for senior female executives.
A collaborative initiative, the programme is hosted by Roundtable: Women in Leadership (an exclusive senior executive women’s network) and KDVI (a global leadership development and organisational change consultancy). Our combined objective is to inspire talented female executives and to help them advance their in their careers.
How is this women’s leadership programme unique?
For more info on the format, what you can expect dates and price, please click here.
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