The impact of Covid19 on organisations is placing huge amounts of pressure on female leaders to continue as ‘business as usual’. And while they wouldn’t want anything more than BAU, there has to be some recognition that women also take on extra burdens when it comes to family and home life.
HR Directors are feeling the pressure right now to get it right for their employees
And it’s no surprise when 79% of HR managers believe that remote working has led to employees working longer hours and feeling under pressure to be ‘online’ to prove they're available and working through their task lists.
We all want to support our leaders - but during this time of crisis, it’s difficult to know what needs to be done (and how to manage everyone's needs!) to keep business moving forward.
That's why it's so important to explore what female leaders really need right now and how we can do this when the signs aren't as simple to spot when you're trying to manage them remotely.
It’s time to look at;
> what female leaders need
> what happens if they don’t get it
> how organisations can fully support them to stay at the top of their game so that they can hit key performance indicators.
The impact of Remote Working on Women
Covid19 and remote working has resulted in female leaders carrying more weight and more responsibilities than ever before.
Referred to as the ‘double double shift’ by Sheryl Sandberg and Rachel Thomas after they carried out extensive research (April 2020) that found 31% of women with full time jobs and families feel they have more to do than they can handle and 1 in 4 experience severe anxiety.
Not only do they have to consider how their own teams are managing, but they also have extra things to manage for themselves including homeschooling and caring for family members as well as continuing to show up for work and feeling the pressure to be accessible to support loved ones.
Female leaders avoid stepping forward and explaining the extra pressures that they're under with homeschooling, video call pressures, technical challenges etc - because they fear the judgement that will follow about their capabilities.
They instead suffer in silence because they fear the judgement that will follow about their capabilities.
Organisations need to recognise that female leaders are managing bigger roles than ever both professionally and personally and are suffering from higher than ever levels of guilt and stress around performance.
Three major areas contributing to the high levels of work related anxiety are;
1 - Discipline
Lack of routine is causing serious issues for female leaders. Most leaders have key work routines - and these have been uprooted by new challenges; working from home, having to home-school, look after themselves etc.
Whilst female leaders recognise that they need to create new habits and routines to ensure long term success, they're also;
Questioning how they can maintain their work ethics and discipline that feels good and does not pile on the pressure
Exploring what their priorities are for them, their family and their career and teams.
** Cues for Companies **
What can we be looking for that demonstrates a female leader may need support developing a new routine?
Are there any senses of overwhelm or disorganisation? Is there a lack of communication? Having the same conversations over and over with little action? Defensive? Negative? Too busy?
2 - Self Belief
Self belief is an important trait for any leader. It ensures that they can lead people to also believe in the organisation and vision for the company.
When self belief is knocked or confidence is lowered it has a huge effect on their ability to lead, make critical decisions and stay focused without panic or overwhelm leading the way.
The current crisis has knocked confidence across the board; leaders are worried about furloughed staff, performance management - and home management. This pressure on women to perform at their peak and not discuss the difficulties of doing so, means that they carry a huge burden - silently - which leads to self doubts creeping in.
This is where resilience is key.
It's how the self doubts are pushed to one side making room for strong leadership.
Building resilience takes self reflection, focusing on strengths, receiving feedback, professional and personal development through the safe space to talk about what’s going on and learn new strategies that will help women to deal with leading their teams remotely.
** Cues for Companies **
What might be happening that highlights the need for confidence building for your female leaders?
Is there procrastination around decision making? A lack of energy / enthusiasm? Are they still delegating? Are the team getting support from others? Lack of ideas or creativeness? Lack of strong questions?
3 - Emotional Support
Research suggests that women who are in managerial or senior roles are great at supporting others yet not as great at asking for support when they need it.
Avoiding the judgement of not being capable or ‘good enough’ for the role they worked so hard to secure. They know it’s not a weakness and can delegate well however what is often missing is the emotional support piece that is crucial for effective leadership.
“Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and your interactions with other people. Emotionally intelligent leaders practice self-awareness, regulate their emotions and clearly express how they're feeling to others.” (Indeed 2020)
Women are more likely to talk to their counterparts than those they report to about their struggles. And apart from getting it off their chest this doesn't always help them with the practicalities and pressures of leadership. This solidarity can often decrease as women climb the ladder.
** Cues for companies **
What are signs that your female leaders are in need of additional support for them to feel emotionally strong.
Are your leaders more withdrawn? Are they doing more hours than normal? Do they have a support network? Are they taking on the team's burdens? How do you make sure your female leaders can approach seniors for support?
What your company can do about it
Companies could lose their best leaders should they not pay attention to what they need right now - which may be different to what they have needed before. The result is that women don’t feel valued and start to look around. This needs long term thinking way beyond the current crisis.
Companies could;
Ask them if they have other caring responsibilities and how this will impact on their work
Look out for some of the cues mentioned above and talk to your leaders
Offer more flexibility around working hours
Show you value what they are doing - feedback, paying attention to performance
Set clear expectations regarding workload - priority setting
Offer external coaching support without time pressures on senior managers
Offer different ways of keeping in touch rather than only online team meetings
I am supporting female team leaders right now to feel empowered to lead and be there fully for their teams. These women need the next level of support so that they can not only feel valued by their organisation but have the space to feel strong enough to support others too. Get in touch for more information or book a call to discuss your leaders’s needs.
** Gemma Stow helps companies develop their female talent to encourage senior level career progression through in house training, group / private coaching, and online workshops so that they can benefit from more female senior leaders, increased performance and reduce the gender pay gap. It empowers their female employees to step up, go for the next level promotions, showcase themselves and their company through purposeful networking; building solid connections; increased performance; and, creating opportunities so that they can be confident at the next level.
Message her directly to find out more or book in a call here. Download your copy of the white paper ‘Visibility At Work: The Importance of Self Promotion for Women's Career Progression’ by clicking here or listen to the No More Hiding Podcast here.**