During Women’s History Month in the U.S., we heard a lot about women at work. Given the importance of this topic and what we are hearing from the leaders and teams we teach and coach, we have been continuing to learn and think about women in leadership and want to share some of what we’ve found valuable:

• Women leaders were rated by colleagues as more effective than men leaders overall, and also on 13 out of 19 leadership competencies including inspires and motivates, communicates powerfully, collaboration/teamwork, and relationship building.
• And yet, biases and underrepresentation of women in leadership roles persist.
• Women leaders have been suffering from burnout at work, and it began long before the pandemic.
• High levels of burnout are leading more women to change jobs or leave the workforce entirely. Research shows that organizations really suffer when women leaders leave, in part because women leaders create more engaged teams, are responsible for stronger performance, and are often perceived as having both more wisdom and more compassion than their male colleagues.
• There are steps women and employers can take to help women navigate some of these challenges.
• Investing in women’s leadership programs not only helps develop women leaders, it teaches organizations about how to think about and expand their perspectives about what it means to be a highly effective leader.

We hope this helps you think about and more effectively support and develop your women leaders. Of course, we’re happy to talk about any of this if we can be helpful.

The Boda team