Overcoming Gender Stereotypes in Leadership Development

Leadership is an important skill that is essential for success in many different fields.

Self-leadership has been a big part of my work as a leadership coach, speaker and mentor. As the Ambassador for The New Paradigm for Gender Equality Manifesto, I’ve wondered how to leave our boxed-based thinking, break down the gender stereotypes and rethink gender equality.

In this article, I want to share my thoughts on leadership development. A warning beforehand, this perspective might change how you’ve been conditioned to believe the need for gender-based leadership training, out-of-the-box thoughts for some. 😉

1. What sort of leadership development are we looking for?

Let’s start with the fact that every one of us gets a unique picture in our head of what a leader is.

When it comes to organisations and businesses, many of them don’t have a clear and common idea about what leadership means in their organisations. Neither are they very clear about what they expect from their leaders.

Without that precise description of what sort of leadership we aim for, I’m afraid organisations will fall into the trap of copy-cat some of the previous leadership styles in our world.

I don’t know about you, but I question many of the traditional leadership traits and strategies in the past.

Gender-based leadership programs

2. Women’s leadership programs can be good, bad and ugly!

While there are many different approaches to leadership development, one of the most debated questions is whether leadership programs should be gender-based.

Some argue that offering gender-based leadership programs for women is necessary to promote gender equality and empower women. I understand that view of many cultures and societies. I’ve been advocating for women’s leadership programs; it’s great for some women! However, we must also be aware of its bad and ugly parts.

Be aware of creating another social construct — a norm for women!

The trick is to avoid falling into the habit, a tradition that becomes the social norm of advocating that you need a particular program to be a leader as a woman. Making the general assumption that you have it all naturally as a man — we all know only a handful of men (and women) have leadership skills naturally.

Another thing we need to be aware of is the culture that I often see emerge where women come together for training, such as this one. And that is the conversation around generalising Men’s behaviours.

Conversations that start with: “Well, that is what the guys are doing all the time”, and the focus becomes how to do the same as the guys rather than focusing on who you are as an individual leader and what you want to bring to the table.

A tricky thing to avoid is not thinking you must behave as the stereotypical male leader has throughout centuries. Instead, focus on being yourself as a leader and grow from there.

3. Leadership training for men

Let’s say we agree that offering gender-based leadership programs is good; why don’t we provide special leadership programs for men?

Are we assuming that men don’t need special leadership training? Isn’t that stereotyping men as all-natural leaders?

What are the consequences of making it an assumption that men have more natural leadership skills just because, in the past, more men have been in leadership positions than women?

Can you see the blind spot and the consequences of this boxed-based common belief?

Don’t know about you, but I feel for men out there who are trying to fulfil this social construct, faking leadership with no pieces of training.

Why don’t we offer men the space to improve their leadership style with other men? Think about it; would we accept that there should be no leadership programs for women if we were talking about that?

Oh no …society leaves men with no choice; they are forced to take leadership courses for all genders! Or continue to unconsciously believe leadership is what they were brought up with and do the same as they were taught through their generations.

Maybe you’ve seen plenty of “Leadership Programs for Men’ only out there? — I haven’t.

4. Leadership programs, regardless of your gender.

In contrast, others believe that leadership programs should be available to all, regardless of gender.

My take on this: What if we gave people the option to choose? Choose from gender-based training, one for men and another for women and the third choice, leadership training where gender doesn’t matter.

The Box You Choose to Belong to, Becomes Your Brand.

What is your take on this?

Would it benefit more people if organisations were open and unafraid to change their approach to leadership development and offer programs in all three ways?

Would it create a more diverse and inclusive workplace culture that values the contributions and perspectives of all employees? Making it part of their culture to allow all employees to choose between these programs according to their personal needs and growth as whom they want to be.

Being the change you want to see in your workplace means doing things differently.

My conclusion:

We must constantly stay aware of our habits and traditions that create our boxed-based thinking. Rather than continue to be in the black-and-white world focusing on either or why not look at all possibilities?

When it comes to essential training such as leadership, recognise that gender-based leadership programs may not always be the best way to promote gender equality. Giving people a choice between the three options will give space for a more conscious decision for each individual.

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This post was previously published on Runa Magnusdottir’s blog.

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