Female Leadership Competencies

The course is organized by the seven Female Leadership Competencies that were determined by our research at The Center for Leadership Excellence. Educational content, resources, activities and homework are organized in alignment with each competency.  In the pages that follow, we briefly highlight each competency. 

TOPIC 1: WHY WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT

Our research of successful female leaders indicates there are seven core competencies that women need to develop to succeed in their careers. There’s further research that explains why women are socialized differently than men, from a young age, and how that impacts us and our careers.             

TOPIC 2: SPEAKING UP & SELF-ADVOCACY

Women are exceptional at speaking up and advocating for others, but terrible at doing it for ourselves. We found the most significant competency among female leaders was a finely tuned ability to speak up and advocate for themselves.

TOPIC 3: SELF-AWARENESS

Research shows that self-awareness, not confidence, is the greatest determinant of success or failure. Yet, as women we’re taught to chase confidence, instead. Building tools for introspection and creating habits of building self-awareness allows us to thrive as female leaders.

TOPIC 4: COURAGE

An unspoken characteristic of female leaders is a propensity for taking risks. While it might seem that this is an innate ability that is difficult to build, it’s actually a skill that an individual can develop. We explore tools for overcoming negativity bias and building great self-efficacy as a way to be more courageous.

TOPIC 5: RESILIENCE

Great leaders understand that failure is nothing more than an opportunity to learn and grow. What female leaders agree upon, is that they use failure to propel their careers. They constantly strive to get better and learn what it takes to get through challenges, change, roadblocks, the word “no”, and LOTS of failure.

TOPIC 6: INTUITION

While women are believed to have stronger intuition than men, in today’s male-dominated business landscape and data-based society, it’s an undervalued skill. In fact, most women are taught to ignore or distrust their own intuition in exchange for the wisdom of others. The key is to learn to balance our intuition and logic/data.

TOPIC 7: RELATIONSHIPS

Female leaders indicate that building relationships is critical to their career advancement. Similarly, early-career females indicate “networking” as a key area they desire help with. How do we intentionally build relationships with other female leaders, as well as people who can provide advice, mentorship, and advocacy throughout our career journeys.

TOPIC 8: COMMUNICATION

The communication characteristics that are valued in leaders are often the same characteristics that women are penalized for exhibiting. Navigating the communication minefield for women, particularly in male-dominated environments, requires an awareness of how to communicate and how to navigate people who communicate differently than we do.