How Women Can Better Prepare for Leadership Roles

When I first entered the learning and development industry, I encountered a lot of doubt about my abilities as a trainer. At the time, I taught OSHA, lean manufacturing, and facilities management, and many of the attendees in my training events were men. Whether it was my age, gender, or skill level, I often sensed their dismissiveness when I walked into the session. “What could she possibly have to teach us?”

Fast forward to the present, and I’ve noticed that when I’ve had the opportunity to promote someone, women are often more careful to ensure they understand the job before accepting it. They partly do this because they’re evaluating their readiness for the role, but I think the other part is unconscious self-doubt that has been generally ingrained in women.

While some outside forces and attitudes are slow to adapt to the modern business landscape, I’ve found that the more I look inward, the more I have been able to set my own standards and not conform to what others expected of me.

Find Confidence in Your Abilities

Everyone has different skills, but it can be difficult to learn how to harness those abilities and channel them properly. Over time, I was able to figure out how to maintain a belief in myself when others didn’t. But it takes more than mental willpower; there are concrete action steps that I took that helped me along the way.

• Be knowledgeable: There’s no way to prevent others from being doubtful of you. The best way to erase that doubt is to show that you know what you’re talking about. In my training sessions, when I showed how prepared and knowledgeable I was on the topic, the participants’ demeanor flipped. Give them no other choice but to trust what you’re saying.
• Be willing to say “yes”: This isn’t about overextending yourself or taking on too much responsibility; this is about being willing to step outside your comfort zone. Have an appetite for a challenge. The more experience you earn, the better you’ll be able to navigate the problems that might arise in your career.
• Don’t be afraid of different roles: I’ve worked for a defense contractor, two different airlines, a supply company and a large charitable foundation, all before joining SkillPath. I would’ve never predicted that the skills and experience I gained in any of those roles would help me as CEO, but they have. Even if something seems far removed from your interests, still take the time to absorb what you’re learning. You never know when it might help you down the road.
• Empower other women: Currently, 9 percent of Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs. It was 6.6 percent in 2019, so progress is being made. When I became CEO, I had the opportunity to promote several wonderful and talented women. And I want to be clear that they weren’t promoted just because they’re women; their abilities, knowledge and insight have been crucial to SkillPath’s success. When the opportunity comes, give others the chance to use their talent to their full potential.

Not every woman wants to be CEO or an entrepreneur. And that’s okay. You don’t need that job title to show others that they should heed your advice, and you don’t need it to be a leader. This is about gaining knowledge and experience that will help in your career. The more I learned and the more I trusted my own skills and instincts, the more respect I earned.

Trust the Process

Nothing is going to happen overnight. Confidence takes time to build, so use the opportunities you get to learn and grow. The more you learn, the more confident you’ll be. Embrace challenges and have a tenacity to navigate the unknown. Be willing to collaborate and innovate; sometimes things need to be held together with string and duct tape, and you need people who are willing to roll up their sleeves with you and solve problems creatively.

For women, there will be a lot of outside factors that will make us doubt ourselves. While 2022 is much different than 1982, sexism and unconscious bias still exists in the business world. You can’t control what others say or think, but you can control your reaction to it. I found that the more I let that doubt from others be my fuel, the more I found success and confidence in my own capabilities.

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