Women-only development programmes - ignore at your peril!

Years ago, when I first become a senior manager, the company made quite a deal of it. Three of us were interviewed by the media, our photos appeared and the caption read the 'The first ladies of BT'.

A few months later I was nominated for specialist female leadership training. I asked my boss who promptly said 'No! Why should you be treated any differently?'. He was an imposing man. I didn’t argue. I couldn’t anyway. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think I should be treated differently.

Years later we are a little more enlightened. We are more aware of the importance of gender balance for the sake of organisational performance.

And the experts tell us that a 'female leadership style' with traits such as empathy, compassion, collaboration is what is needed for the 21^st century.

Research also suggests women-only training is needed. For example, women approach their careers differently from men, network differently, are less comfortable promoting themselves and have different communication and influencing styles.

So why then are women themselves afraid to be open about women-only development?

The bottom line is we are afraid of being different. We have been raised that way. We have seen leadership as modelled by men. We have followed in their footsteps. Daring to be different is difficult.

Here is my challenge. So even if you aren’t convinced about women-only development, or if you haven’t had first hand experience and 'get' how it works, at the very least, be curious. Read our upcoming blogs. Talk to others who have attended. Or just go ahead and give it a go – come along to our upcoming workshops.

And if you don’t do it for yourself, think of your daughters! Can you risk not finding out something valuable that you could pass on to them?

Watch out for our upcoming blogs

What Every Woman Needs to Know to Succeed – The 101 on Second Generation bias

We will demystify recent research and share the subtle and often invisible barriers that inadvertently benefit men and have the potential to derail or disadvantage women.

We will share strategies to successfully overcome these less visible barriers that women leaders face.