Women Who Step Up

Stand Out

By Chandell Labbozzetta, CEO Life Puzzle

The statistics tell us that women are seriously under-represented in leadership roles throughout Australia (and the rest of the world). There are a lot of structural and cultural justifications of this imbalance and one of the reasons that I support Business in Heels is because of the valuable work they do to quantify and address these inequalities. There are still many situations where women are fighting against active discrimination but that is not where I want to focus today.

Today I want to focus on the skills, behaviours, and mindsets women need to cultivate so that they are chosen to lead because of who they are and what they bring to the table, rather than because of their gender, quotas, or even historic firsts. I have to confess that something inside me cringes when I hear a woman described as the “first female CEO of X Co” – because the thing we should be celebrating is their unique achievements and qualities that made them the best choice.

So, why isn’t that kind of thought first and foremost? And what can we do to change it?

I like to focus on the things we can control right now. And that means asking what skills and qualities do I need to develop to become a person that people will look to for leadership.

Women Who Step Up

Stand Out

By Chandell Labbozzetta, CEO Life Puzzle

The statistics tell us that women are seriously under-represented in leadership roles throughout Australia (and the rest of the world). There are a lot of structural and cultural justifications of this imbalance and one of the reasons that I support Business in Heels is because of the valuable work they do to quantify and address these inequalities. There are still many situations where women are fighting against active discrimination but that is not where I want to focus today.

Today I want to focus on the skills, behaviours, and mindsets women need to cultivate so that they are chosen to lead because of who they are and what they bring to the table, rather than because of their gender, quotas, or even historic firsts. I have to confess that something inside me cringes when I hear a woman described as the “first female CEO of X Co” – because the thing we should be celebrating is their unique achievements and qualities that made them the best choice.

So, why isn’t that kind of thought first and foremost? And what can we do to change it?

I like to focus on the things we can control right now. And that means asking what skills and qualities do I need to develop to become a person that people will look to for leadership.

We developed our multi-tier Leadership Program to address this issue and accelerate change in organisations, and since I’ve spent a lot of time delivering leadership training I’ve realised that there’s a serious lack of the qualities that make a persuasive and influential leader on all levels. I could talk about the ‘why’ of that forever. Instead, let’s talk about what characteristics women need to exhibit to make them the obvious choice:

• Confidence – that you can deliver, that you believe in your ideas, and plans because you’ve thought them through and so you speak up and put yourself forward.
• Respect (for self and others) – if you don’t respect yourself and your contribution why should anyone else? AND… You need to listen to others and respect their skills and opinions if you expect them to follow you.
• Visibility – the willingness to be seen – even though that means being criticised.
• Communication Skills – it doesn’t matter how lofty and inspiring your vision is and how wonderful it makes you feel if you cannot share it meaningfully with others.
• Assertion – the willingness to stand up and stand out in defence of your vision even if that makes you uncomfortable (force and power are words that women sometimes shy away from – which can send a signal that prevents them from being chosen as leaders).

 One of the emerging female leaders I worked with had this to say about our program: “I just wanted to say a “Thank you” to both of you as doing Life Puzzle has really helped me change and develop in both my personal and professional life. I recently got a promotion to a Supervisor role and if this was me prior to life puzzle, I probably wouldn’t have even applied for it.” 

One of the biggest lessons I took home from my first exposure to Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) at my Practitioner training almost 20 years ago was the idea of being @Cause. This is the reality that we can provide reasons why something is occurring (usually ‘to’ me) or we can take responsibility for the outcome and ask “What did I do/not do that contributed to this the outcome?” It is absolutely necessary to address societal and structural suppression of women, but as every woman knows, it’s usually faster to take control of the result yourself as far as possible – so the follow-up question is: “What can I do that will get the result I want?”

The ‘war on talent’ going on in every organisation across the country means that leadership opportunities abound, the question is: Where are the women with the skills and the confidence to step up and take them?