5 lessons to learn from women-led organisations
Women-led organisations score much better than their male counterparts in areas like providing mentorship, fostering a culture of friendliness and collaboration, and promoting work-life balance, all of which help in creating a more productive work environment.
Across the world, women are constantly creating and ideating, they are innovating and transforming, but most importantly, they are finally leading more than ever before. As per the State of Women-Owned Businesses report, commissioned by American Express, women-owned businesses with revenues of over $1 million increased 46 percent compared to 12 percent for all U.S. businesses in the last decade.
These statistics are backed by the sheer number of women-led organisations that are constantly in the news for breaking new ground and changing the rules of business that have been male-centric for far too long. With such radical change comes the opportunity to learn, here are the top five lessons to learn from a woman-led organisation.
1. Providing mentorship
Most employees in any company would like to progress over time, and to do this they require help from a mentor-like figure.
A mentor is somebody who provides guidance, honest opinions and valuable skills that can aid an employee to perform better and learn.
A Pew Research found that 25 percent of women are better at being mentors to their staff compared to the 3 percent men in leadership roles. Great mentors almost always motivate employees to perform better and make for a good work culture.
Any organisation, whether big or small, can thus learn from this and work towards fostering a culture where employees feel like they have a stake in the company’s growth.
2. Work-life balance matters
For decades, companies with male leaders at the helm ignored the creation of a strict work-life balance in offices. Working late hours and on holidays still continues to be a badge of honour in many companies. Such environments are obvious products of a patriarchal mindset that expects women to bear an unfair load of domestic duties and be stay-at-home mothers and wives.
However, as women continue to enter the workforce in record-breaking numbers, there is an increasing sense of creating a work-life balance in offices because a majority of women still experience job spill over into the home.
A KPMG study of women entrepreneurs showed that the topic of work-life balance drew the most unanimous answer from respondents; with over 25 percent of women indicating that work/life balance is a top priority for them.
3. Collaboration
Collaboration is the key to running any successful company. Collaboration in the workplace takes into account the ideas, skill sets, and experiences of different employees to bring about desirable results.
Studies showed that women leaders are way ahead when it comes to collaborative efforts and are more open to working together with different kinds of people. Women-led organisations are thus leading the way when it comes to leveraging their collaborative skills.
4. Employee friendliness
People are what make up a company and keeping employees happy and motivated is a key challenge that many leaders face. A survey conducted by Berlin Cameron, The Harris Poll, and The Female Quotient found out that 50% of all Americans say that they would prefer to work at a female-led company over a male-led one.
The reason for this is that female-led companies tend to have better access to childcare facilities, espouse equal pay, and provide other employee benefits. Companies and organisations around the world can thus take a leaf out of the women-led organisations book and work towards becoming more employee-friendly.
5. Better communication
Communication is a crucial skill that can help leaders to engage with their employees. A breakdown in communication could lead to employees feeling demotivated or not understanding the organisation’s goals.
A study by a real-time HR insights platform, Peakon found that women-led companies are doing a much better job when it comes to inspiring belief in their services and products through communication.
Effective communication leads to better work environments and hence, should be deeply entrenched into a company’s edifice.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)