Is attracting, developing, retaining, and promoting female leaders the priority of your company? And you are thinking of what to do to obtain excellent results? If your answers are yes, then this article would be a great guide to attract, develop, retain, and promote talented female leaders.

Female Leadership Challenges and Required Competencies

Organizations that desire to attract and retain women leaders must first of all address the female leadership challenges such as establishing credibility, managing up and across the organization, negotiating adeptly, and influencing others and needed competencies like managing organizational complexity and strategic thinking and acting; to ensure female leaders have the experiences and the resources to learn and develop what they need most. This may be achieved by giving mentoring, coaching, workshop as well as giving guidance for on-the-job learning or training.
On this note, it is crucial that the organization and female employees understand the skills, perspectives, and capabilities that are required to be effective in diverse leadership functions.

Reconsider Systems and Challenge Assumptions

Organizations should try to find out ways that oblivious partiality in the organization affects opportunities and motivation for female talents. Creating opportunities for talent management, networking and mentoring are some potential areas for reconsideration and improvement of system and challenge assumptions.
Instead of the usual assumptions of knowing what women want, managers should rather enquire from them directly and organizations should create the culture and systems that make it easier for those conversations to find meaningful expressions.

Create the Right Networks

The right relationships or networks are assets in getting access to information, earning promotions, and gaining opportunities. Effective leaders rely on correct networks and trusted partners to influence others and to get results.
A lot of female talents often oppose the process of networking, due to due to the perceptions that networking is insincere, political or manipulative. But the networks that come easily are not necessarily profitable for women, their careers, or their organization. So Managers and mentors should assist female talents to gain a better understanding of the network they have and compare it to the network they really require.