Research Paper By Sherri Lojzer
(Women’s Leadership Coach, CANADA)
By nature, leaders need to be decision makers at all levels and have the confidence to push forward on sometimes difficult issues and tough agendas to reach the greater good of the organizations. Individuals within those teams all come with their own motivations that are defined by their own selves and don’t necessarily have the mindset to see a picture from both levels. It bears onus on the leaders then to learn how to develop, guide and influence their teams to see and desire the bigger picture. Leaders aren’t just born. Leaders are made, but making that leadership requires the right building blocks. Good emotional development, mentoring and learning, opportunities, support and adaptability.
The current hallmarks of smarter and better leaders comes from much evolution in the business world, but significantly because of the effect of incredible amounts of social and psychological study and also the influence of women moving into leadership roles and bringing their new and unique ways of implementing their own leadership styles.
The Harvard Business Review reports that 2 out of every 5 CEO’s fail during the first 18 months on the job 1. If we take a step back now and look at the demographic of who we are discussing it is important to note that the Centre for Women’s Business Research published December 20043 that only 30% of all U.S. businesses are led by women. According to Fortune 500 in 2013 only 14.6% of executive officer positions were held by women and Catalyst, Pew Research Centre indicate that only 5.2% of CEO’s are female. This means that a significant majority of the leadership of organizations and businesses is still male dominated but women are gaining a foothold.
If we can examine this from a developmental perspective and focus on the ability of these leaders to become smarter and better in their roles, let’s consider their openness to methods for feedback and self-development using coaching as an example. Coaching offers the opportunity for them to strengthen these skills in themselves and have a tremendous impact in their organizations. More and more they are recognizing the value and need for coaching to take the already good leaders to greatness.
