Women Leaders and Self-confidence
While self-confidence is the basis for any self-improvement, a recent article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) was very specific about the need for women leaders to be self-confident. Leslie Pratch is the author of this article – she is a clinical psychologist who helps companies identify whether potential executives possess the psychological resources and personality strengths needed to succeed. If you read the 16 page research paper referred in this article, it can become a long read….so i consolidated the key messages which I found helpful …….
You can read the HBR article here…..
- Before a woman answers a question in the corporate scene, it may help to stop and ask yourself a question “do you think a man would have ever answered that question that way?”
- You got be very confident, even though we are so self-critical inside about what it is you may or may not know. And this will lead to taking risks
- Gender based expectations for behavior influence the styles and evaluations of leaders
- Men are freer to carry out leadership in different styles without encountering negative reactions because their leadership is ordinarily perceived as legitimate
- The findings indicated that women have to have high self-esteem and high self-confidence so that they can cope with the constraints placed on their leadership styles.
Related articles
- Why Women Leaders Need Self-Confidence (blogs.hbr.org)
Posted on January 4, 2012, in Women and tagged Business, career, Clinical psychology, Education and Training, Harvard Business Review, Leadership, Management, Self-confidence, Women. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
That was quite an article.
Indian women espl those of working class are well known for multi tasking !
I believe skills and talents should not be biased on gender factor !
there are well known leaders in both gender !
Genders should be kept apart from talents…
http://deepakkarthikspeaks.blogspot.com/
True! While gender bias is unwarranted, there definetely are gender specific expectations from the society …
it definetly is changing for better……..our moms were better than our grandmoms and sure our children will be in a much better gender-inclusive society.
It certainly takes time to be a leader.But self confidence is a necessary part of it.Though self confidence and leadership are integrated,still it takes load of a character to be some one.Probably character is what defines such Women who become leaders.
http://aamthoughts.blogspot.com
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