It’s not my question, but that of author Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s book of the same title. Yes, that’s right, a male author is calling out the unconscious bias towards men as leaders.
He states that we place more emphasis on how someone looks and sounds than on their actual capabilities. The male swagger is likely to serve better in career prospects than quiet female competence. In fact, according to Chamorro-Premuzic, this is the single biggest reason why we have so many incompetent men as leaders: we confuse confidence with competence.
We know, for example, that if asked in an interview if they can do a job, men will say, ‘Of course, absolutely I’ve got this!’ even if they can only cover 50% of the competencies of the role. Women, on the other hand, are likely to say, ‘I’m fairly sure I can do most of what it requires for the role and I will work hard to close the gap,’ even if they can cover over 90% of the competencies. There is a definite gender split in terms of how competence is viewed. Men feel it is just another arena to be conquered, whereas women feel it is a bedrock of which they must be absolutely sure of before declaring their own abilities.
So much of my work with women is in helping them to own their own brilliance. They come with humility baked into them, meaning that blowing their own trumpet and declaring their abilities does not come naturally. The same reticence is not prevalent for men. However unconsciously, we are still rearing our women to believe that they are valued if they are demure, while men can be confident, loud and self-promoting. With such dynamics it is perhaps not surprising that gender inequalities still exist.
We need to get beyond seeing confidence as a form of competence and we need to help to break down some of these social rules that leave women feeling that they cannot push forward and promote themselves without it appearing that they are pushy, bossy or aggressive (terms that are rarely applied to men). We need organisations to stop being gender-blind and address the real barriers that exist for women (and for many diverse groups) to succeed. Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) on gender diversity in the boardroom concluded that:
“Female progression to top roles is not sustainable unless organisations provide a strong and sustainable framework to recruit and develop women at every stage of their career.”
In my book – The Female Edge: How to accelerate your leadership ambitions and craft a career on your own terms, I share a number of strategies to help women to be more confident in sharing their abilities and learn how to promote their talents in authentically.
I’ll be sharing this and many other tips and Insights In my exclusive FREE webinar on Tuesday 21st September at 1 pm (BST). If you want to hear first-hand how the Female Edge can accelerate your leadership ambitions and have a chance to win a free signed copy of my book, register your interest here.