You could be! According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission looking at women in top positions…if women were to achieve equal representation among Britain’s 31,000 top positions of power, the Commission estimates over 5,600 ‘missing’ women would rise through the ranks to positions of real influence.  Can you imagine such equality? Can you imagine being in a top position?

I confess, although I am someone known for optimism and believing in miracles when faced with some of the statistics it’s hard to imagine 5,600 more women in significant positions. The same report, Sex and Power, has likened women’s progress to a snail’s pace. A snail could crawl:

• nine times round the M25 in the 55 years it will take women to achieve equality in the senior judiciary;
• from Land’s End to John O’Groats and halfway back again in the 73 years it will take for equal numbers of women to become directors of FTSE 100 companies; and
• the entire length of the Great Wall of China in 212 years, only slightly longer than the 200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in Parliament.

Here are five tips:

1. Shift your thinking. Another of my favourite quotes is Albert Einstein ‘The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.’ A common analogy of career progression is that of climbing the rungs of a ladder. This thinking is limiting, instead think of it more as scaling in a rock face with the footholds and handholds in small crevices as opportunities and new thinking. Sometimes you will need to shift your weight to the left or to the right to get your balance before you can reach the top. But look out for those less obvious opportunities – that small speaking engagement, that invitation to be on a school board and ‘give back’ and that role that takes you out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to stretch yourself and go out on limb.
2. Get yourself a mentor. The gender ‘problem’ may be addressed by training and leadership programmes for the advancement for women, but a mentor will support and strengthen confidence in your career. Someone who has gone before you and has progress further up that rock face and can drop that rope down to you.  However, if women look exclusively to other women as mentors, a lack of women at the top means women may not be able to find suitable mentors who can help them develop so having a female mentor isn’t necessary all of the time.
3. Be authentic and take ownership of your destiny. It is your career, your life, your destiny. Carve out your own career path and in doing so you will be empowered along the way.  Distinguish yourself from the rest of the crowd and don’t be a victim.  If you don’t like something, change it.  If you think something is wrong, if its not aligned to your values, get into a position where you can do something about it.  If you don’t want to be pigeonholed, don’t pigeonhole yourself.  Be true to yourself.
4. Be brilliant. Get really really good at the role you are in.  Ensure you have your foothold securely in that role and have mastered it before moving n to the next.  Remember wise words of Winston Churchill, “It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”
5. Live with passion, live on purpose. Be enthusiastic about what you do and how you do it.  Let your passion shine.   Find the opportunities in areas that ignite your passion and purpose, be it networking events, business referral meetings and one-to-one coffee meetings where your passion is aligned. Be purpose-driven and not just in a business sense follow your heart, connect with people you like

Tags: empowerment, Gender equality, influence, Women, women in leadership

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Gender equality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.