On the Gender-Leader Implicit Association Test I scored -1. This indicates that I do not favor males and leadership. I believe this to be true. In my own profession, I have worked for 2 different principles, both female and the superintendent of our division is a female. In my experience, I feel that my school is faced with the opposite problem of making sure that the male staff members do not feel excluded. There are only 8 male members of our staff and closer to 60 females, and it is sometimes a challenge to make sure that they do not feel devalued or unimportant.
You can make women feel valued and like they belong in the workplace in many ways. I believe that it starts by having a good rapport with them and establishing a connection. Make them feel included as a valued member of the organization. Make them feel unique and valued in the organization (Nugent et al., Catalyst (2016), P 2). This means caring about them, showing that you value women by striving for equal pay, giving promotions according to talent and leadership qualities, not according to gender, and establishing an inclusive work atmosphere possible. If a leader is aware of the glass ceiling barrier that women face in their careers, then using certain strategies could help to alleviate the barrier. Some of the strategies could include: establishing a mentorship program, flexible work policies, paid family medical leave, and compulsory paternal leave (Women’s Policy Journal, Volume 6, 2009, P 42).
It is also important for a leader to realize that inclusion and exclusion co-exist in organizations. While most people have difficulty providing examples of inclusive elements in an organization, they can readily identify exclusive elements (Nugent et al., Catalyst (2016), P 2). For example a woman may experience inclusion by participating in a leadership mentoring program, but then experience exclusion when she meets with her team and her ideas are always dismissed or ignored. (Nugent et al., Catalyst (2016), P 11.).
Leaders need to manage and understand that inclusion and exclusion co-exist in organizations. They can do this by making inclusion more visible in an organization by rewarding inclusive behaviour and by creating a shared vision for inclusion. They need to have meaningful conversations with all of their employees, not just women. They need to constantly monitor and be watchful for incidences of exclusion and track the progress and the setbacks (Nugent et al., Catalyst (2016), P 3).
To foster recognition and a sense of belonging for women, a leader should have one on one meetings, monitor meetings to learn whose opinions are being heard, and whose are being discounted,
Research shows that when employees feel valued in an organization, they are more motivated and team-oriented. In contrast, when employees feel excluded, there is a great cost to the organization as they are more likely to leave the organization, less likely to share innovative ideas, put less effort into their work and generally exhibit less job satisfaction (Nugent et al., Catalyst (2016), P 2).
“If inclusion is to take root within an organization, leaders must be able to simultaneously acknowledge and manage the good, the bad, and the ugly of their employees’ day-to-day experiences—the positive strides, the difficult times, and everything in between” (Nugent et al., Catalyst (2016), P 12).
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Nugent, J., Pollack, A. & D. Travis (2016). The Day to day experience of workplace inclusion & exclusion. Retrieved on November 17, 2017 from http:www.catalyst.org/system/files\The\day\to\day\experience\of\workplace\inclusion\and exclusion.pdf