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Advancing Women’s Leadership through Coaching

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This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this Link.

Advancing Women’s Leadership through Coaching

The 12 habits that hinder female leadership

Leadership culture, organisational practices and individual behaviours are three dimensions identified as important in international studies to achieve change in the development of female leadership internationally.

In this article we focus on the individual behaviours, mentality and behaviours that distinguish executives who have progressed to leadership positions in organisations.

Some of the most distinctive behaviours and beliefs of these professionals are the ability to advocate for themselves, the development of support and influence networks at different levels of the organisation, taking risks and developing new competencies, and a high degree of self-confidence.

In the book “How Women Rise”, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith identify the following 12 habits or behaviours that hinder the development of women in organisations:

  1. Reluctance to claim achievements.
  2. Expect others to spontaneously notice and reward your contributions.
  3. Overvaluation of experience.
  4. Just build, rather than build and leverage relationships.
  5. Do not recruit allies (peers, mentors and sponsors) from day one.
  6. Put work before your career.
  7. The trap of perfection.
  8. The desire to please.
  9. Minimization (in words and body language).
  10. Too much (too much emotion, words, information).
  11. Rumination.
  12. Let your radar distract you.

These habits frequently appear together. For example, the habit 1. reluctance to claim achievements often appears accompanied by 2. expecting others to spontaneously notice or praise and reward their contributions, leading to women not developing and assuming the importance of advocating for themselves.

Other behaviours that can be found together are habits 3. overvaluing experience, 6. putting work before your career and 7. the perfection trap, which together can limit the professional’s ability to take risks, open up to strategic projects and develop the competencies and skills necessary to progress in leadership roles.

To still refer to the behaviours 4. only build instead of building and leveraging relationships and 5. not enrolling allies from day one, which when given inhibit the development of support and influence networks at different levels of the organisation.

The behaviours 9. minimization, 10. too much and 12. letting your radar distract you, with absorption of too much information and/or decreased focus, hinder the development of influence in the organisation and for professionals to be perceived as having an executive presence.

In the coaching process, the coach supports the executive to:

  • Clarify your purpose and vision of the desired future.
  • Recognise your personal power and authenticity, your competencies, experiences and knowledge, that is, what you bring to the table.
  • Evaluate how you present and act in different situations, how you empathize and create rapport and relationships of trust, how you communicate with others, how you respond in crisis situations, what are the triggers that can arise and that must be taken care of.
  • Map your people of interest and identify potential allies, mentors and sponsors.
  • Define what value and impact you want to create, what new perspectives or emotional changes you can provide to enhance solutions in critical situations.

The coach accompanies the professional in her actions to:

  • Develop a learning and growth strategy with clear purpose and objectives.
  • Structure an active network of relationships and support.
  • Simultaneously manage work, career, and personal and family life.
  • Create greater impact and value in your communications and interactions.
  • Develop self-confidence and assume your personal power.

A professional coach supports the client in their development process, stimulating reflection and creativity, acting as a mirror for the client, encouraging the discovery and implementation of new lines of action. Sometimes, he supports the client with experimentation or role-playing techniques that allow him to visualize different perspectives, actions, and experiment in a safe environment, in a continuous process of reflection, action and learning.

Author: Fatima Ribeiro

The author is a PCC Coach, Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes, and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Professionals meeting in an informal workspace

The leadership revolution

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This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

 

The way we think about leadership must change. We think there is a “leadership crisis”, but in reality we do not know what the leadership of the future should be like.  The global study “Tomorrow’s Leadership and the necessary revolution in the development of today’s Leadership” sought to explore this question and summarize some findings.

This study published by Henley Business School, United Kingdom, led by Professor Peter Hawkins, researcher, author and developer of a systemic team coaching methodology, reflects on four key questions:

  1. How will the leadership needed in the organisations of tomorrow be different versus the leadership of today?
  2. What needs to be developed for the leadership of tomorrow?
  3. How appropriate is today’s best practice for developing tomorrow’s leadership?
  4. What else needs to be done?

Some of the main challenges that leaders consider will impact them in the next 20 years are:

  1. A relentless and accelerated transformation of organisations
  2. A technological and digital evolution
  3. Change in business models, disintermediation and “uberization”
  4. Fewer collaborators in organisations and increasing stakeholder complexity
  5. Globalization
  6. Climate change and
  7. The need to learn and adapt faster.

These challenges are interconnected, each driving and being driven by the others.

In a context of incessant transformation, change is no longer just an event, but a constant worldwide, impacting organisations at an accelerated pace, affecting not only the individual but also the organisation itself. The global trends identified are: changing demographics, change in the workforce and ways of working, political instability, economic unpredictability, market volatility, globalization, climate change and migration.

The impact of digitalization, robotics and outsourcing contribute to “hollowing out” the organisation. Tomorrow’s leaders will have fewer people to manage and a growing, diverse and complex number of groups and organisations with which they will need to partner to succeed. Leadership changes from vertical to horizontal, leading not only the organisation, but also creating partnerships and synergies with different interest groups to be successful. Developing alliances and working through networks is an essential leadership competency.

Thinking and being alert globally, understanding global trends and adapting agilely to the unexpected is another leadership competency. The learning capacity of leaders and organisations must consider the speed at which the environment is changing to prevent extinction.

The study identifies the following changes in leadership as necessary:

  1. From ‘leading my people’ to ‘orchestrating business ecosystems’
  2. From “heroic individual leaders” to “collective and collaborative leadership”
  3. Leadership driven by purpose and value creation for all stakeholders.
  4. From serial and fragmented innovation to working simultaneously in three time frames (today, tomorrow and the future).
  5. Embracing multiple individual diversity and also systemic diversity
  6. The leader must be a developer of others.
  7. Leadership must be able to maintain a high level of motivation in diverse generations of collaborators.
  8. The ethical maturity necessary to live in a transparent world.
  9. The importance of creating successful alliances and networks

The study highlights the need to evolve towards greater leadership maturity and ethical maturity, the importance of creating value for all stakeholders, developing greater awareness of the organisation’s diversity, and the importance of collective and collaborative leadership.

This change can be facilitated through systemic coaching, which brings the perspectives of different stakeholders to teams, supporting them to work connected with purpose and a vision of success, promoting the development of trust to increase the quality of engagement, the development of relationships, alliances and connections, and the co-creation of solutions that promote organisational learning.
Fatima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.