Why Men belong at the Brave Feminine Leadership table

In this article I discuss the importance of having different voices at the leadership table.

Men belong at the Brave Feminine Leadership table because they are in power. Because they have the power to make a change. They have the chance to take responsibility to make changes, to influence decisions that will shift status quo.

Men have the power to look around and lead by asking questions.

• How many females are in our companies executive team?

• How diverse is my executive leadership team?

• What strategies or new ideas do I need to develop to make it look different.

For many years, we have seen research from McKinsey, The Wall Street Journal & Bloomberg citing evidence of links between teams that are more diverse achieve more success.

Citing evidence that a better gender balance leads to a competitive edge over their peers and their organisations are more likely to have above average profitability. A good case to strive for diverse leadership skills. To embrace diversity broadly. To embrace feminine leaders and leadership qualities.

I’m genuinely puzzled when I hear our pay gap is widening, that last year 1 out of 23 CEO appointments to the Top ASX 300 was a female leader, that Australia has slipped to 50th place in the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index, down from 15th place 15 years ago.

A 2021 McKinsey report “Women in the Workplace” shared the increase in females leaving the workforce, citing one in three females were considering leaving the workforce. COVID may have proved the straw that broke the camel’s back for many women.

Women aged 35 – 55 who are in the sandwich generation – often with young or teenage children at home and elderly parents needing support.

This drain on female talent is critical.

They won’t be back for a while and when they do, the bar will be high on the lived values of any organisation they join.

Don’t lose them. Turn yourself inside out to hang on and help them.

Female executive leaders are as ambitious as their male colleagues.

Why then is change so stubbornly slow?

This curiosity is what drove me to create Brave Feminine Leadership - a series of interviews with Global leaders to understand why in 2022 we are still asking questions about gender equality, even when it is proven that diverse teams benefit companies significantly.

In the first series I invited one male to the table together with 22 Females (4.3% ) who all shared their perspective and answered the key question;

“What does Brave Feminine Leadership look like today and does it need to change?”.

In the second series I invited 5 males to the table together with 20 Females. (20%)

Progress that is lightyears ahead of Australia. Progress that I made in under 6 months by deciding to do it. Not even a hint of irony in that comment.

A decision is all it took. A choice.

Balancing feminine qualities and masculine qualities

Brave Feminine Leadership isn’t exclusively about supporting females. It is acknowledging and exploring that the old ways of leadership that got us here won’t get us where we need to be in the future. It is driven by a belief that the world gets better when the privilege and responsibility of leadership is equally shared.

A leadership journey is unique

You might need to nurture talent differently to build your future effective leaders. You might need to realise that in the days where command and control leadership is dead (and hopefully soon buried), that a new breed of humble leaders can step up. Leaders demonstrating humility, empathy, and compassion, all of which have traditionally been considered feminine leadership traits.

Humility is key. As Jim Collins shared in Good to Great, leading CEOs have both humility and determination.

This leads me back to female executive leader, who through years of social conditioning don’t always feel comfortable tooting their own horns. 

Who don’t feel comfortable sharing their ambition.

Who might not even dare to believe they could aspire to key leadership roles.

It makes humble leaders harder to find.

This is exactly why we need men at the Brave Feminine Leadership table.

Good men who have always been champions of talent, who don’t see gender as a barrier and who are convinced, we should and can do better.

Humble leaders with determination to be a part of the change.

What if one simple question helped to boost women in leadership roles in Australia?

As leaders it is our absolute privilege to ask our teams if they are ambitious. It is also our absolute privilege to help nurture that ambition through creating a culture of belonging, nudging people out of their comfort zones, and seeing their potential long before individuals see it themselves.

The simple truth is to get different voices to the leadership table you might need to look at your workforce with a new set of eyes. 

You might need to ask a few different questions and be prepared to accommodate a few different needs if you are interested in getting even better results.

Traditional leadership courses won't fix this, let's start with asking questions.

Women are keeping their ambition a secret.

I regularly challenge the incredible women I work with to answer three questions:

1. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

2. What are you truly ambitious about?

3. Who needs to know?

The last part is key.

To find these incredible leaders and to drive change it will take all of us.

We have years of socialisation to overcome..