A Guide for Giving Women a Voice in the Business World

Women need to be given a strong voice in business. There is no place for inequality these days, as we have advanced decades ahead from where we used to be. We are no longer a nation that’s driven by divide, but a nation that wants to stand up in unison.

Women have faced unique challenges in the workplace, from sexual misconduct to prejudice in the workplace.

When you feel like you’ve been wronged, and you don’t think that anyone out there to help you – that’s the worst feeling in the world to have. We need to stand up and unite to allow women to have a real voice in the workplace.

It may start with the women, but the men must join in supporting women through this as well.

Key skills like negotiation, management and being a leader are mostly associated with men, with some women being the exception.

Even with greater conflicts in the workplace, women aren’t socially accepted if they’re loud and brash, but considered fine if a man does it in most places. There needs to be a guide to giving women a voice, and it starts from these areas –

Mentorship

For both women and men, it's important to give a voice to those that are younger. When it comes to junior women, it's important for senior women to mentor them into leadership roles.

There are various strategies and communication techniques that younger women can learn from senior ones, that can greatly impact their career path.

Often, we complain about how none of the junior staff members appear to be leadership material, and we end up hiring externally for key positions.

The problem doesn’t lie in our preconceived notions, the problem is that we need to empower young women to outperform and produce quality work. Unless you’re working in a severely sexist company/industry, in which case why are you, you need to produce work that helps you shine. That’s the best way to get attention and make a mark in upper management.

However, what happens is that the credit is often taken by upper management officials. This is why mentorship is important, so that senior women can mentor younger ones to produce quality work that they can take up to upper management.

Mentorship is also important when you’re a male executive and you have a female junior staffer. You need to be careful about how you approach the situation and provide confidence where necessary. You can give them a bigger shot than usual, but what they really need is insight and guidance.

They need to know how they can communicate with the leaders of the company and what they are really looking for when it comes to leadership material.

Those things are what you can offer as a leader.

Support, feedback and initiative

Often, the mere act of providing guidance and support helps women out in more ways than one. There are times when they need support and/or guidance and you can make a huge impact in their careers by giving them the right direction. If it’s a new client that they’re approaching or a new technology they’re about to adopt, then giving them the right steps and tools is key.

You should extend that arm to help them out and give them the right approach when it comes to business success. All the years of hard work and insight has put you in the right position to extend a helping hand to someone who may need it much more than you do.

Feedback is critical as well. When you offer support on a certain project or task, then you need to provide the right feedback at the right time. Saying something too late can jeopardize the project and saying something too rude can diminish confidence. We may give each other a hard time once in a while, but that culture may become toxic if it doesn’t inspire someone to work.

Offer platforms and opportunities

When you don’t have opportunities pouring in, they become rare. Top management may become filled with yes-men, and the idea that the company is growing may not be enough for most women in the workplace. That’s why so many of them choose to opt out of a company that doesn’t give them the right platform and opportunity.

This is why its key to give them the right projects, the right deadlines, and the right resources for them to do their job effectively. This is also the reason why it's important to empower them with whatever they need, so that they can do a good job and feel proud of their work.

If there is a lapse in communication or delays in certain processes, women should feel empowered enough to take action and create the necessary action points based on the information provided. They should be taught key skills that will help them go ahead in their career much faster.

They should also be inspired to become more proactive through testimonials and case-studies of other women who have come ahead and made a mark in the industry that they’re in. That’s a great way to approach an equal-opportunity workplace, and life in general. Helping each other should be a top priority of ours, as it has economic benefits even if we don’t see them first-hand.

Conclusion

Sometimes the popular impression of women can be either pushy or pushover. Sometimes they’re referred to as ‘the b-word’ and other times they are criticised for having hormonal shifts.

Although most men do it privately, it really hampers the productivity of women in the workplace and can create a hostile environment for everybody.

There is always a feeling of emptiness when you don’t get a promotion, or you miss out a position to someone who’s less competent. There is great amount of emotional stress that goes along with that and the answers aren’t all that clear.

They also don’t tend to stand up that often, because they want to be considered “team players” and not “outsiders”.