Lift as you lead: An International Women’s Day reflection

In everyone’s career there is often one person that stands out. A brilliant manager who championed your development, a key contact who had a dream opportunity, a colleague who took the time to teach you a new skill. Our careers are not fully in our own hands, they’re a collaboration of people and acts of generosity.

We often forget that over time, and that in turn leads us to forget to pay it forward. Generosity can be easy to give and can bring big benefits for the recipient.

Leadership is not a solo act

We picture a leader as one person, leading a team, but that’s not strictly true. While there might be one person who holds the title “leader”, their previous success is built on other people and their future success relies on other people, making leadership a collaborative role.

Collaboration is the backbone of an effective leader. Both in recognising individuals with complementary strengths to their own but also in creative dynamic, innovative teams that achieve great results. Knowing when to bring in the right people, when to give someone an opportunity to step up and when to get involved is what makes leadership such a unique role. You have the ability to be generous with your time, your expertise and opportunities. Those invitations can be the turning point in someone’s career and it’s a responsibility that should be actively managed.

There are some people in leadership roles who are scared to share power, perhaps worried that it’ll show up their own weaknesses. Sharing power is powerful in itself. You can create a team around you that’s talented enough to not need you, allowing you to step back and oversee. That generosity of power can only happen when you have trust and a strong team which, in turn, only comes from collaboration.

John Donne said, “no man is an island”, and for leaders that couldn’t be more apt (same applies to women). Leaders as the ring leader, the person motivating, encouraging, directing. It’s the ultimate collective role and we need to remember that.

This International Women’s Day, we’re focusing on creating a mindset of generosity and collaboration. It’s so easy to focus on ourselves and our needs, but when we take a minute and step back you can see that reciprocity and support are key facilitators to success.

For those serious about building a culture of inclusivity and collaboration, the theme of giving to gain is really pertinent. Small actions have big consequences. Spending an extra five minutes with a colleague who’s facing a new challenge at work or recognising someone’s success and offering them a new opportunity can be the turning point for that individual’s progress.

Mentorship vs sponsorship - why both matter

For women and other underrepresented groups, it can be hard to forge a path when there are limited female role models in your workplace. That’s where mentoring and sponsorship come in. Both can be valuable tools to help build confidence, provide strategies and overcome roadblocks. For the mentor or the sponsor it also presents an opportunity to give back, to hand down knowledge and help someone avoid the struggles that they’ve experienced themselves.

While both are similar there are some key differences:

Mentoring: This involves a senior person providing guidance to someone at, typically, an early careers stage. They act as a sounding board and offer advice.

Sponsorship: This takes mentoring but adds action. The sponsor takes an active role in progressing that person’s career through introductions, opportunities or promotions.

Mentoring can have significant benefits on a person’s career in the long term. Those with mentors are promoted five times more than non-participants. Sponsorship can change the trajectory of someone’s career pretty swiftly, opening doors that might have been firmly closed otherwise.

For any leader looking to give back, mentoring and/or sponsorship are methods which have direct positive impact. Those in leadership positions have social capital that younger or underrepresented colleagues don’t have, sharing the benefits with those groups not only advance their careers but also is a genuinely nice thing to do.

Practical ways leaders can give

Over time, it can be easy to have rose tinted glasses about your own personal career path, forgetting the helping hands, the sage advice, the doors opened. We can build a narrative that we did it on our own, and while there’s no doubting the hard work everybody puts into their own careers, it’s important to recognise that careers are a collaboration. That’s why it’s important to give back when you’re able to.

For some, that might be through mentoring or sponsorship. For others, giving back might be more sporadic, but that doesn’t make it less valuable.

There are some easy ways to give back that you can embed into your leadership style and day-to-day practices.

Introductions

We’ve all heard the saying, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. We all also know that to a certain extent, it’s true. A good network is an invaluable resource, whether it’s to keep an ear out for new opportunities or simply to develop ideas and new ways of thinking.

Leaders can help their team by introducing them to the right people when they need it. Using their social networks to start conversations doesn’t guarantee any results, it simply provides an opportunity that might not have come about otherwise.

In terms of effort levels, this one is pretty low. Introductions can be in person or simply an email, making this the most accessible option to give back.

Stretch opportunities

It’s hard to gain experience when you don’t have it. For many looking to progress in their career that’s the barrier they face time and time again. Providing stretch opportunities for your team is a way to help them progress in their career but also to develop their skills which can be useful right now.

Stretch opportunities are projects or tasks that are slightly above that individual’s experience but provided as an opportunity and closely monitored so there’s a safety net. Of course, there are caveats around ensuring the project is suitable and the individual is ready, but they can be a fulfilling experience that boosts retention while developing new skills.

Role modelling generosity

When a person experiences generosity from a senior person in their company, they’re more likely to do the same when they reach that level. It might only be a quick email to you, but it could change that person’s career and people remember those details.

The best way to give back as a leader is to actively demonstrate your generosity. Not in a flashy way, but by taking a genuine interest in their development, their aspirations and their careers and helping when possible.

A challenge…

Taking steps to become more generous with your leadership can feel overwhelming. There are so many small steps that you can take which will have a positive impact on the people around you. Remember who helped you, and how that felt and use that as inspiration to help others. After all, your leadership position is, in part, a result of those around you and the generosity you experienced along the way.

I want to leave you with a challenge. Take a minute to think about how you can help someone right now. Is there an introduction you can make? Is someone ready to be pushed? Can you set up a mentoring scheme?

Generosity isn’t a burden, it’s our responsibility as leaders to give back and help smooth the path for the next generation of leaders.

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