A Partner in Power: Leading Women in a Better Way
- Imani Wilkins
- Mar 29
- 2 min read
As Women’s History Month is wrapping up, I reflect on a deep passion of mine, which is healthy organizational leadership and wellness. While marketing and branding communicate the story of your intended or delivered impact, the experience of your employees, customers, and stakeholders can make or break your marketing efforts.
As a young black woman who has worked in corporate, nonprofit, freelancing, and entrepreneurship, I am unfortunately familiar with being handled in a discriminatory manner in multiple settings.
The Center for American Progress states, “Discrimination and harassment manifest in the workplace for women in several ways. One way is apparent in the enduring gender wage gap, including in the form of gender discrimination in hiring and promotions. Another way is sexual harassment in workplaces, which tends to be underreported.”
So, during Women’s History Month, I would like to share three tips to help leaders as they navigate leading women and building successful partnerships to help achieve their bottom line:
Check your Biases: We all have them. Bias can be defined as prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Bias in leadership does not serve your goals of retention and revenue production if it causes you to undermine your team.
Checks & Balances: Because we’re human, we all have ideologies that we stand on. However, as it relates to interactions in the workplace, always err on the side of caution by creating a system that keeps you in check, as well as others.
Check your communication: When you are speaking to women employees especially, please remember your comments, jokes, and insinuations can be received in many ways. The Pew Research Center states that "Women are roughly four times as likely as men to say they have been treated as if they were not competent because of their gender (23% of employed women versus 6% of men), and they are about three times as likely as men to say they have experienced repeated small slights at work because of their gender (16% versus 5%)."
Complex moments are hard to navigate in any organization, but sometimes, women are unfairly forced to experience the backlash of those frustrations, uncertainties, biases, and stereotypes. I hope that this information encourages leaders to reflect on their position of power and how they choose to wield it as they build partnerships with competent, intelligent, and very capable women.
A Note to Women
To women, especially women of color, your contribution to any and every place you step foot in can be transformational. And navigating demeaning and discriminatory spaces can be heavy on your mental, emotional, and physical health. I just want you to know that I see you, and I’m proud of how you show up. Don’t forget to show up as you, advocate for you, and partner with those who choose to partner with you. I love you, and Happy Women’s History Month.
Sources:
Comments