Passionate about advancing into leadership role? Here are top 3 tips for women

Women are born to lead as they already juggle demanding career expectations, work-life balance, household chores, see the big picture while also exploring depths and being stern taskmasters – all while tackling stereotypes and prejudices simultaneously. However, if you are looking to hone your skills and passionate about advancing into a leadership role in your industry, we got you sorted with tips from experts for being an effective woman leader.

Do you swoon over your female role models for leading the way in their fields today and ponder on what makes them successful leaders? Is it their communication skills or could it be their resilience? Well then, this article is just for you as we spill the beans on 3 top tips that can help you too become an effective woman leader.

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Kriti Israni, Child Development and Parenting Expert and the founder of Hale & Hearty Kids, suggested:

1. Organising and planning schedule – One of the biggest requirement to be effective as a women leader is organisation and planning schedule of activities. As a woman, you have numerous tasks that you need to juggle with both in household and in work. To lead by example and to ensure quick and efficient turnaround of results, organization of activities and planning daily schedule is of critical importance.

2. Pen down your thoughts – Another tip is to write down your thoughts at the end of the day. This helps in clearing up the mind and having good night sleep. You are able to plan a to-do list for next day, review accomplishments of the day and identify critical problem points.

3. Delegate your activities – Last but most important is to delegate activities to efficient and trustworthy workforce and hold them accountable for deadlines. Once you have identified your critical tasks and priorities ; it becomes extremely important to delegate the tasks to respective team members and enable them to use their creativity in accomplishing the task by set deadline. By delegating and holding team members accountable for daily tasks; you are able to keep yourself and team motivated; direct your energy in planning and execution of business strategy and together, you are able to produce higher output and effective results by the end of day.

According to Devina Kaur, radio host and producer and the author of Too Fat Too Loud Too Ambitious, the top 3 tips to be an effective woman leader are:

1. Self-knowledge – To be the most effective leader a woman has to know who she is and what her skills and weaknesses are. One needs to start polishing one’s abilities and channel them in the right direction alongside acknowledging the weaknesses and working towards eradicating them. With self-knowledge, you’ll have a driving force towards giving your 100 percent and delivering work with perfection in the field of your interests.

2. Communicate effectively – Good leaders are empathic great listeners & communicators, they communicate firmly but with clarity. They communicate praise and make more leaders along the journey. When in the process of laying out new ideas and working on them, think of your team as an extended limb of your body. Talk to them about the future you’ve envisioned and the problems that may arise. Encourage them to talk out the problem and work as a single body. Give words of encouragement and inspire them to work more efficiently with a sense of togetherness.

3. Empathy – By nature, women have more of an emotional abundance than men and this makes them more empathetic and connected to others. Spend some time with your team and learn about their work ethics and their approach to any problem. As you get to know more about them, you’ll be able to divide the work efficiently which will automatically boost the confidence and motivation of your teammates.

There’s a saying that a leader is only as good as the team. Work towards building a good team, and as you’ll grow, your team will grow with you. The feeling of accomplishment will satisfy you and energise you in being better than yesterday.

Remember, as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said, “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” So, buckle up and know that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of work but embrace your passion of advancing into a leadership role in your industry by working on the tips shared above.