Foster Business Acumen
Overcome 1 of the 16 biggest career challenges women face
Women are breaking barriers and making significant strides across various fields in today’s rapidly evolving world. However, the journey to leadership is often fraught with unique challenges that hinder their progress. From gender biases to balancing personal and professional responsibilities, these obstacles can seem insurmountable.
In this article, CEOs, coaches, and other experts share their insights into the most pressing challenges women face in their quest for leadership and the actionable strategies to overcome them, paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable future.
Here’s what I had to say on the topic.
Managers Must Foster Women’s Business Acumen
The mindsets of managers (men and women) create the single greatest barrier to women’s advancement into leadership positions. After all, who other than managers are gatekeepers for advancement opportunities?
One mindset that creates nearly insurmountable barriers is the idea that women don’t have and aren’t interested in business savvy (business, financial, and strategic acumen).
5 ways managers can overcome this barrier:
Reframe their thinking about women (e.g., by taking note of and learning from the successes of women CEOs).
Mentor women on why business savvy is important, how to gain it, and how to demonstrate it.
Guide women into positions in the core of the business—not just into HR or marketing.
Have robust conversations with team members about the business, its finances, and strategy.
Give women direct feedback about the importance of business, financial, and strategic acumen.
5 ways women can overcome this barrier by taking action to develop and demonstrate business savvy:
Listen at all-hands meetings and understand the implications of financial updates.
Meet with others across the business to understand the value creation chain.
Read books about business, not just about how important it is to engage team members and be a good person.
Understand how your KPIs roll up to your manager’s, his or her manager’s, and ultimately into financial reports.
Always be FOR the business…in everything you say and everything you do, act like a CEO.
For the other 15 pieces of advice, READ ON
About Me
I’m Susan Colantuono, best known for my TED Talk, “The Career Advice You Probably Didn’t Get.”
I’ve devoted most of my working life to supporting the career advancement of women. Now my work is exclusively focused on offering women tools for developing and demonstrating Business Savvy - the business, financial and strategic acumen we need to succeed and to close The Missing 33% of the career success equation for women.
You will find useful and actionable content in my books and other online resources:
No Ceiling, No Walls ebook
No Ceiling, No Walls soft cover
Make the Most of Mentoring soft cover
Coaching Executive Women (occasional) newsletter
Lead ON!
Susan