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Friday 15 November 2013

Strategies to get more women into leadership roles

A recent report from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs states that "Leadership talent is in short supply in New Zealand and globally. Yet at every successive management level significant proportions of talented women drop out or their career stalls. This is the leaking talent pipeline. This report examines how three factors, unconscious bias, career breaks and flexible working, create barriers to women’s career progression and contribute to the loss of leadership talent" (2013, p. 1).

The report concludes with some key areas which need to have some good solutions provided in order to get more women into leadership roles.

These areas where solutions are needed are worth repeating:
  1. "raising awareness and developing actions to address the unconscious bias that
    otherwise will continue to create invisible barriers to women’s progress in the
    leadership pipeline
    "
  2. "supporting talented women to return to work or re-enter the workforce in jobs that
    fully utilise their leadership skills and value to the organisation
    "
  3. "aligning policies, workplace practices, and organisational culture to support effective
    flexible working arrangements for all employees
    "
  4. "proactively planning and managing women’s leadership careers in a way that
    supports their career and life choices
    "
  5. "taking an executive-led and strategic approach to implementing transformational
    change that will shift existing mindsets and behaviours to ones that support gender
    balance in leadership
    ".
OK, so that's what we need to do: now how do we do it?

References:
  • Ministry of Women’s Affairs (2013). Realising the opportunity: Addressing New Zealand’s leadership pipeline by attracting and retaining talented women. NZ: Government. Retrieved 10 October 2013 from http://mwa.govt.nz/sites/mwa.govt.nz/files/Realising%20the%20opportunity.pdf
  • Ministry of Women's Affairs (2013a). Why women in leadership. NZ: Government. Retrieved 27 October 2013 from http://mwa.govt.nz/why-women-leadership 

Sam 

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