“You can and should set your own
limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also
liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect.” ― Rosalind Brewer,
President and CEO of Sam’s Club
On February 19, 2016, I keynoted a
leadership conference in India where I shared my leadership ideas and insights
on my upcoming book titled, “21 Success Sutras for CEOs: How Global CEOs
Overcome Leadership Challenges in Turbulent Times to Build Good to Great
Organizations.” The audiences were leadership practitioners from middle level
to senior level. One of the women practitioners asked me the following
question, “How can women break glass ceiling?”
A shocking research report by McKinsey
in 2011 unveils that men are promoted based on potential, while women are
promoted based on past accomplishments. It is unfortunate that there is a glass
ceiling prevalent globally. Glass
ceiling is all about an invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities to
scale corporate ladder. It is often tough to identify but it can be felt
especially by the women. There are many ways this issue can be addressed. Here
are some tips to address it earnestly:
Women must remove their mental blocks
that they cannot compete with men to reach leadership positions. They must be very confident in undertaking
leadership roles and responsibilities. They must handle organizational
challenges effectively. They must avoid preconceived notions that men don’t
allow them to grow professionally. They must take risks to prove themselves.
They must draw inspiration from successful women leaders like Hillary Clinton, Indra
Nooyi, Ursula Burns, and Sheryl Sandberg who broke glass ceiling and succeeded
globally as leaders.
Women have many advantages over men
since they can multitask and work under pressure with patience and
perseverance. They are strong in emotional intelligence and soft skills. They
have the heart to forgive and forget. They can handle leadership
responsibilities effectively without any fear. What they must do is to build
their own qualitative network to grow instead of depending solely on male
network. They must work hand in hand with their close connections to fight for
their rights to establish themselves to excel as leaders.
Conclusion
Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox Corp
remarked, “If you are sitting around the table but you say nothing, that's a
lost opportunity. Move beyond that and say something about what you have to
offer. The reason you’re there is because you have something valuable that can
be added.” As men add value to
organizations, women also add immense value to organizations. Leadership is not
gender-based but purely performance-based. Women must break their mental
barriers to compete and collaborate with men as per the situation to improve
organizational bottom lines. Melanie
Hope, wrote in Get Over It & Get
Started: Self Help with a Spine! “No glass ceiling was ever shattered by a
whiner.” Therefore, women must not whine to excel as winners in all spheres of
life.
A bird cannot fly with one wing since
it needs two wings to fly. Similarly, no society can progress without the
support of women. It requires support from both men and women to build a better
global society. Hence, it is essential to respect women with dignity and honor and
empower them to build a better global society.
“This is the ultimate chicken and the
egg situation. The chicken: Women will tear down the external barriers once we
achieve leadership roles... The egg: We need to eliminate the external barriers
to get women into those roles in the first place. Both sides are right.” ―
Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work,
and the Will to Lead
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Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR Leadership
Consultants India
Recipient
of 10th International Prestigious Sardar Patel Award―2015
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