WE

05Encourage

Encourage a woman to achieve her potential and ambitions by how you support, recognize, develop, mentor, and prompt her.

What Women Want

• Advice and opportunities
• To be acknowledged for their efforts as well as their results
• Support and encouragement
• To be valued for their demeanor and leadership style
• For their insights and achievements to be more visible

The Problem

According to an analysis of more than 100,000 quantitative and qualitative statements from men and women conducted by Barbara Annis and John Gray, PhD, authors of Work with Me, women’s top complaint in the workplace is not feeling valued or appreciated.¹

More times than I care to remember, in conversations with managers and leaders and in succession-planning or talent-development meetings, I have heard leaders make assumptions about a woman’s ambitions or her interest and willingness to take on a challenging or international assignment.

I have heard remarks like “She has young children, no way she’d want to do this,” “This role requires a lot of hours and travel, and I don’t think she’d want to do that,” and “She seems happy in her current position.” But, the reality is that both men and women are ambitious and seek challenging career advancement opportunities. Here’s an example.

Robin Sterneck told me how Ron Pressman, the leader of small group of people sent in by GE to work on a portfolio ...