LEADING THE WAY

If you were asked to imagine a leader, who comes to mind? The majority of people would visualise an inspirational man. There is a global phenomenon ‘think manager – think male’ which effectively highlights that, even though huge strides have been made in relation to gender equality, our internal social bias is that men are the leaders. In the last decade, scientific findings have concluded traits such as humility, self-awareness, emotional intelligence and kindness are needed to make the most effective leaders. Findings also conclude that women outperform men in these key traits.

This presents us with a problem: women have huge potential as incredibly effective leaders, but our cognitive bias as a society about the gender we think leaders need to be and the traits we believe we need to see in them, presents a barrier to many by female leaders across the school, acting as mentors, coaches and role models for our young women. Small group workshops and 1:1 coaching sessions are undertaken in areas such as strengths identification, finding your passion, leadership identity and effective reflection. We also have a programme of visiting speakers alongside this to inspire and empower our girls on their pathway to leadership. By creating this programme we are not saying girls need more leadership development than boys; it is simply an acknowledgement that, due to the continued gender imbalance in leadership roles and the cultural assumptions, as a society we continue to dissociate women in leadership. With this in mind, and as an educator of both boys and girls, we actively prepare our girls for these kind of challenges; so they have the best chance of overcoming them in their women realising this leadership potential.

I am fortunate to work in a school where 85 per cent of senior staff are female. I have seen the benefits that female leadership can have on employee morale, passion, collaboration and a positive culture. As a Head and female leader in education, I have also, however, experienced the ‘think manager – think male’ phenomenon at play. It’s often subtle and subconscious, but it definitely continues to exist. Although there has been much progress in society’s view of women as leaders, a shift in a long-ingrained cultural mind-set doesn’t happen quickly or without specific action.

This is why, at Pennthorpe, we have created the ‘LeaderHERship programme’ for our girls in years six to eight. Research shows that exposing adolescent girls to leadership and actively developing their understanding and use of their leadership skills is critical preparation for them to undertake future leadership roles. The programme is specifically designed to empower our girls to believe in themselves, set their sights high and proactively seek opportunities to utilise their skills. LeadHERship is delivered pursuit of future leadership positions. Running in parallel with these opportunities for our girls, is the consistent education and encouragement of our boys in their understanding of equal opportunities for all, thus bolstering their belief in their own abilities to thrive.

Leadership is not an inherent characteristic, but a set of skills and attitudes that can be nurtured and developed. One of the most powerful things we can do as educators is cultivate a generation of female leaders who value the qualities they can bring to leadership positions and have the resilience to withstand accusations that, because they are not dominant enough, forceful enough or male, they are not good leaders. The world would benefit from more leaders who focus on empowering others, lead with kindness and empathy and have the emotional intelligence to work with a wide variety of people effectively and get the best out of them. Although these qualities are seen as stereotypically female, we must work on instilling them in both girls and boys. These are the traits needed for effective contemporary leadership; let’s embrace them.