Women in the Workplace: Tips from the Experts

Take a look at three key subjects (and expert advice) for women in the workplace, their colleagues and their company.

A recently published study conducted by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org gives a thorough view of the state of women in Corporate America. Challenges for women in the workplace has become a trending topic, thanks to women like (LeanIn.Org’s founder and COO of Facebook) Sheryl Sandberg, but it is also an important topic of our time, as the latest annual data from the US Department of Labor indicates that approximately 57 percent of women participate in the labor force.

Below we dive into three key subjects (and expert advice) for women in the workplace, their colleagues and their companies.

Tip 1: Negotiating as a Leader

In Her Place at the Table, Deborah M. Kolb, Judith Williams and Carol Frohlinger provide the tools for approaching five major challenges as women accept any leadership role. They conclude that a woman’s best approach to overcoming these barriers lies in negotiation and knowing what to ask for.

To overcome these hurdles, they advise women to negotiate through five major challenges as they approach any leadership role:

• Intelligence: Successful negotiation of a leadership role depends on strong, previously acquired information.
• Backing of key players: Women need to negotiate for sponsors who will vocalize the strategic case for their appointment and their agenda.
• Resources: These are best negotiated for when they are aligned with a company’s strategic objectives.
• Buy-in: This must be negotiated for at the individual, team and systemic levels.
• Making a difference: Women typically do not need to negotiate to make a difference but to be recognized for the differences they make.

Tip 2: Social Inclusion

In a 2015 article published in HR Magazine, writer Jonathan A. Segal discussed ten ways to fight gender discrimination in the work place. One way is to “practice social inclusion.” According to Segal, social inclusion is a huge part of “business inclusion.” Make sure that any social inclusion or social event works for colleagues of all genders.

Tip 3: View Gender as a Business Issue, Not a Women’s Issue

One key concept from the business book summary entitled, Why Women Mean Business, focuses on why having a diverse employee population of women and men is crucial to a company’s success.

“A diverse leadership team […] provides the key to understanding today’s multicultural, ever-changing workplace.”

No matter what trending workplace topics you want to be educated on, or what skills you are looking to develop, you need access to a variety of reliable content from a variety of experts. The place where you can get this all? Leadership & Management Learning Center ™ (LMLC).

All sources noted in this blog post were found through Leadership & Management Learning Center:

• Bennington, E. (2013). Who says it’s a man’s world: The girls’ guide to corporate domination [eBook].
• Segal, J. A. (2015, January 1). Everyone Lean In. HR Source, 60(1), 74-76.
• Wittenberg-Cox, A., Maitland, A. (2010). Why Women Mean Business [Business Book Summaries].