Key Steps Women Can Take to Be Strong Leaders

For long enough, women have been expected to conduct themselves in a certain way and abide by the societal norms set in a patriarchal environment. These male-dominated rules apply to women in the workplace too. Although education and expertise have been enabling women to become visible in leadership roles, several challenges that need to be overcome, remain.

Women are constantly pushing the boundaries of gender equality by leveraging their strength and leadership skills through cognition, experience, and knowledge. Strong female leaders today are proactive in chasing things they want from their jobs, instead of waiting to come to them. Here are some key steps women can take to transform themselves into strong female leaders:

1. Stepping out of comfort zone

Women need to be confident to the hilt in grabbing the slightest of opportunities at work without the fear of failure. Just as society encourages boys to be bold from childhood in terms of decision-making, girls too must be taught to take risks out of their comfort zones. This is because success lies in letting go of one’s worst fears by acknowledging them. Every successful and strong female leader did what they were afraid to do and yet went ahead anyway.

2. Accepting Equality as the Reality

Most women would have encountered gender inequality at the workplace in terms of pay parity, a lost promotion, or even a derogatory comment from a colleague. Even if your workplace prioritises equality, gender discrimination in a subtler form is not very uncommon to witness. However, if women are to be considered as equals in their workplace, they need to back themselves and demand the respect they simply deserve. Speak out not just for yourself, but your female peers too.

3. Women as Role Models for other Women

Women tend to approach professional work holistically by setting and achieving goals, focusing on teamwork, and training the teammates. These positive traits that women leaders bring to the table have long last implications in the form of employee retention, creating solid team players, and the next rung of strong female leaders as role models.

4. Summing it up

While gender equality is the main ingredient to create strong female leaders, financial self-sufficiency is a major factor in helping to push the equality compass. For women who wish to plan their financial future, learning to manage their finances and plan for different stages of their life is extremely essential. Women’s plans that are dual-purpose vehicles of insurance and investment are beneficial in providing an insurance cover along with achieving the goals that you may have set to fulfil in life. Women plans such as the HDFC Life Click 2 Retire are one such financial instrument that helps achieve a women’s retirement goals by planning very early. With the pension amount these plans guarantee, women can still stay financially strong and independent even post their retirement.

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