3 Top Career Tips For Young Female CEOs
The pinnacle of a company can be a lonely place for a woman. Women have historically had a woefully low presence in boardrooms, and hiring practises across the board have been far from equal.
But change is gradually emerging. As of March of this year, there were 74 female CEOs leading America’s 500 highest-grossing companies, setting a new record for the number of female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. Even while that only translates to a female representation of about 15%, it’s an improvement from about 8% in 2021 and the fourth year in a row.
Women have a remarkable capacity for influencing business transformation, and when the composition of boardrooms shifts, they also have a remarkable opportunity to encourage other women to pursue similar goals.
For our upcoming generation of female leaders to succeed, we offer the following advice:
1. Adopt a “growth mindset”
Being stagnant can never lead to success in company, thus adopting a growth attitude is crucial. Be aware that as a CEO, your work is never done. Always be thinking about how your business can get better, change, and adapt, whether it’s through strategy, what you have to offer, or how you do business overall. It’s crucial to maintain your adaptability and readiness to operate in the current market conditions and in a time of such rapid change.
Since no business is perfect, constantly ask yourself what can be improved. Is what you’re doing today assisting in achieving your future objectives? The key to successfully taking a business forward is to be aware of both your strengths and the areas where changes could be made. If you’re ever unsure, look for alternative opinions and listen to your customers and staff.
2. Find a mentor — or several
It’s good practice to create a personal board of directors to provide you with direction and clarity when making decisions. In order to contribute as truthfully as possible to each crucial decision, it is important that this board includes individuals who are familiar with you, in all facets of your life.
Create and expand your own team of trusted advisors. Have both supportive and challenging relationships with others to ensure that you never stray from who you truly are and what you are striving to achieve.
3. Be your authentic self
On that topic, it is crucial for leaders to be real, which calls for bringing your whole self to work. For instance, embracing your motherhood in the workplace. This will come across in your leadership capacity, and you should want it to. You will be able to share a wide range of experiences with colleagues and develop stronger bonds and mutual understanding as a result of bringing your complete self to work.
Authenticity enables others to connect with you and understand who you really are. In light of trends like the Great Resignation and the upheaval that organisations will continue to see post-pandemic, this kind of relatability is essential to your credibility as a leader and could be the difference between keeping talent on board or losing it.
The most important thing learned by most female leaders, is to never give up. Having spent a lot of time working with disruptive early-stage firms, female CEOs know that the road to success is seldom simple or clear-cut. It can be simple to give in to external pressures and doubt yourself, whether they come from the markets or critics, but it’s crucial to be resilient, have confidence in yourself, and never lose sight of your goals.