SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi there, Maureen Chana here, founder of the MindSight Academy, neurocoach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and other people's emotions, change behaviors, flourish and exceed expectations. I am so pleased to be back here with another episode of Lead to Excel Podcast. So our topic today is how to overcome barriers female leaders face in the workplace. We know a lot about the external barriers female leaders face or women face generally in the workplace. But my focus and passion is really helping women understand the internal barriers because once you understand those and you're able to overcome them, then it's easier to navigate and overcome the external barriers. And a lot of times you find that the external barriers end up creating internal barriers for women, and we're going to look at all these. So without wasting any more time, as usual, get your drink, your tea, your coffee, water, whatever that might be, put your feet up and listen in. Leadership ability is rarely about the gender of the leader and more about the individual. But we find that innate or nonconscious biases and social expectations can hinder female leaders from moving forward into more top-level roles. The hurdles and barriers that many women face in the workplace is out of their control, but this can actually create an opportunity for female leaders to be more purposeful and intentional about doing the things within your own control. This will enable you to climb your career ladder quicker and ensure that you feel that your life is meaningful and fulfilling. Many are blind to the behaviors and habits that keep them stuck, but it's important to remember that behaviors lie within your control, whereas external forces, like other people's unconscious biases, don't. My aim in this podcast is to help you clear your path of self-imposed obstacles so that you can become more successful and take greater satisfaction in your work. My goal is to help you make the biggest positive difference that you want to make to expand your power and influence in your career and society. So looking at some of these barriers will start with confidence. Have you ever thought to yourself, can I do it? Am I good enough? I don't belong. Will anyone want to even listen to me? I remember when I just got into public speaking. These were exactly the thoughts that were coming to my mind. And it really had a great impact on me because naturally I'm quite introverted. So for public speaking, I was asking myself a lot of questions. Would they even want to hear what I've got to say? Would they find what I've got to say interesting? And you see, once these thoughts started spiraling in my head, it then had a great impact on how I projected myself and also my presence. But once I took control of that inner voice and really started focusing on the message that I was giving, my confidence grew because I knew that the information I was actually passing across was very important and I knew what I was talking about. So I had confidence in the actual information I was giving, but it was more me and how how I believed I was being perceived that was now hindering me. So confidence issues arrive from self-worthiness, how you feel about yourself and others. This ends up impacting how you show up and your ability to show up as well. Because a lot of people end up moving away or shying away or even stop themselves from going for those big promotions. Of if from in my case, from public speaking, I could have stopped there and I almost did, but I kept pushing, you know, pushing myself to really go out of my comfort zone, and now it's it just comes naturally to me. And the fact is that even high-achieving women often have to fight to maintain their own confidence, so you're not alone. The solution is to develop your emotional intelligence skills because once you understand your emotions, you'll be able to change how you perceive yourself and let go of any behavior that is no longer serving you. Another barrier is self-awareness. Who are you? What do you want? If you, as a female leader or even as a woman, cannot answer the question, what do you want in your personal and professional life? If you can answer that question, how can anyone else help you get where you want to get to? Many women don't know what they want, so they struggle to define what's next for them but don't understand why they feel stuck in the process. Think about this for a minute. Do you feel something is preventing you from moving forward? Do you feel something is preventing you from leading the life you're supposed to be living? Maybe you feel unable to break through circumstances that are holding you back. The key is to define and take ownership of what you really want. Start by understanding your personal values and then ensure that your sense of purpose aligns with your values. It's taking time to reflect on what you truly want, your true passion. This will allow you to look beyond the status quo to explore possibilities that give you a compelling reason to take bold actions despite any fears and insecurities. Self-awareness is about being your authentic self. Another barrier is personal branding. I'll start this by asking the question, how are you showing up? Many women shy away from blowing their own trumpet. They are hesitant to talk about what they bring to the table. Instead of claiming credit for work they've done, many are often reluctant to claim credit for their own achievement. Some women are hindered by the desire to please and they end up giving up the need to be acknowledged for their own work. I've been in meetings where a female member of staff will say what she's done, but really underplaying her role in the work she's done. While the male colleague gets in and elaborates on it and talks about it so much that people end up believing that he actually did the work? As humans, we usually shape our behavior to match that of our in group. So if you feel uncomfortable drawing attention to your achievements, it might be because you perceive possibly other women, your boss, your culture, your organization, your family, your religion expect you to be modest and self-effacing. The solution for you now is that it's time to move away from expecting others to speak for you so that you start taking responsibility of making sure that your organization, your team, your leadership team, or even the interview panel know what you bring or what you can bring to the organization. And you need to feel comfortable saying it. Blow your own trumpet, blow your own horn, even when it does not feel comfortable. If you struggle to claim credit for your achievements, it will most likely hinder your career progression. Speaking up about what you contribute and detailing why you're qualified does not make you self-centered or self-serving. It actually shows your confidence in your ability and the value that you place on it as well. Because one of the things that holds a lot of females back is that perception of being self-centered if you talk about what you've achieved. But the fact is that if you don't speak about what you achieve, you're also sending an unconscious message that you're not bothered about rising in your career. This is one of the reasons why some women get bypassed for promotions. If you don't value what you do, why should anyone else do? And if you don't draw attention to it, how do you expect people to actually know what you do? And that's where a lot of people get it wrong. I find a lot of times that women are doing great work, but they expect others to notice and speak about it on their behalf. Remember that you are your primary product, so be your own greatest cheerleader. As human beings, we're always selling something, so you might as well become confident in selling yourself. Why would others believe in you and your capabilities? The only way they will is if you do. To sell yourself effectively, you have to believe that what you have to offer is essential, and this is where the first two points that we spoke about come in very useful: confidence and self-awareness. Showing up and working hard is essential, but giving yourself the best chance of moving up the corporate ladder means you will need to be heard. Be your own advocate and seek out a sponsor who can also speak up on your behalf. Make it clear to your managers and colleagues exactly what you bring to the table and why it's valuable and why you are valuable. This will raise your profile and also inspire other women as well. This reminds me of the quote by Maya Angelo posted on LinkedIn this week by the female lead group, which says, Each time a woman stands up for herself without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women. So even if you will not do it for yourself, do it for other women because other women will see you talking about what you do, talking about what you're achieving, and it will motivate them and encourage them to do the same or to even aim high as well. Another barrier is networking. Because many female leaders believe that networking is not important. You hear people say, I don't have the time. Networking is you being intentional and purposeful about building those important strategic relationships, so it's not optional if you want to rise in your career. I must say here that there's a real need for female networks to be as effective as men's networks tend to be by providing more informal and formal help to other women, such as mentors who can help them get promoted. And I must say there are quite a lot that I've noticed coming up recently. It's something I will encourage every female leader or females to get involved with. Actively pursuing advantageous connections runs counter to the classic ideal of feminity. Many women feel that pursuing these connections and relationships will make them seem to be pushing. But this cannot be further from the truth. Once you have clarity on your purpose, you then have to proactively develop positive and effective relationships. Some female leaders avoid networking because they see it as inauthentic, as developing relationships that are merely transactional and they feel it's too mechanical. But you will find it more comfortable if you reframe your narrative and see it as a means to a larger purpose, such as advancing your organization's or team's visions and goals. Another barrier is reluctance to negotiate. This I come across so much. So many of my coaching clients have this big problem. I have many women say to me, How do I ask for what I want? Many females are ready to fight for others, but reluctance usually surfaces when they have to ask for something for themselves. Learning how to negotiate effectively is a skill every woman must learn. Don't think about your need as you being selfish or self-serving, but remind yourself that you deserve it, you've earned it, or just simply remember the value that you've brought to the organization or the value you know you can offer. You don't have to forfeit your needs for those of others and be miserable or unfulfilled. Ask for what you deserve, ask for what you want. The next barrier is stress for success. Many women's Achilles hail is trying to please everyone. They overcompensate, take on more and more work. Some of this is from a place of insecurity which shows up as the controlling behavior. This is where female leaders find themselves working really hard, rowing the boat so fast that it ends up resulting in stress and burnout. Maybe you just want people to know that you're capable, you're adding value, so you take on more work so that your boss or colleagues can see that you're worthy of promotion, but you become so exhausted that many females end up getting to their mid-career and end up looking for ways to just get out because they cannot and do not want to take on any more work or they just feel that they cannot carry on working that hard anymore. The unfortunate thing is that many female leaders end up turning their back on leadership at the very time when they should be climbing the ladder to more senior roles because they've lost interest or they literally have just switched off mentally and they opt out of leading or simply leave the corporate world completely and set up their own business. To avoid this type of stress or burnout or loss of interest, start now to scale and multiply your impact by delegating more. Empower others and take on more responsibilities and be open to let others in by asking for help. Or equip others to take on more tasks and projects. You don't have to do everything. The last barrier we're going to look at is bias. Many female leaders don't think about the beliefs and assumptions that are no longer serving them. It's important to discover your own inner critic. In order to do better and set yourself up for excellence, you have to start by reflecting on what you have been doing in the past and ask yourself if it still serves you well today. Be conscious about your own biases and own them and change the ones that are hindering your progress. This will liberate you to focus on leadership purposes and less on how you're perceived. Learn how to untwist your thinking, self-awareness, and knowing which thought to reframe based on your situation is very important to enable you to be in control and get to the top of your career ladder. Your thoughts shape how you see yourself, how you see others, and also your perception of the world. For example, if you associate smartness with a particular gender or group of people, and you're not that gender or in that group, you might think certain career paths are less available to you. But we know from science that it's possible to disrupt these norms. A lot of these biases, unconscious biases that are external have become internal for many women and impacts on their behaviors or actions. So it's important to reflect and understand your own beliefs, your own biases, that inner critic in you that is holding you back so that you know what needs to change. This will basically help you rewire your brain so that you can be who you truly want to be and achieve what you truly desire and deserve. I hope you found this podcast really useful. Thank you once again for tuning in. And remember that if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, click on the button wherever you listen to it so that you don't miss an episode. And I would really appreciate you leaving a review as well or even a comment on the podcast or ideas of topics that you want me to talk about in future. I've got some exciting episodes coming up with some interesting guests that you really wouldn't want to miss. So, in this climate, wherever you are, do remember to keep safe, look after yourself, and I truly wish you perfect health. Stay limitless, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Bye for now.