Beauty in Mind with Dagmar Chlosta

DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) tends to be part of the agenda for all corpo-rations because it’s a mandatory aspect in today’s leadership and part of compliant corporate governance. Hence, the mother of all diversity causes – women in leadership – should by now be the ‘new normal’ with women playing a vital role not just in politics but in boardrooms across the world.

But where do we find ourselves regarding women in leadership? Granted, we have made strides. Numbers of women in executive leadership positions, female founders, women in politics, NGO leaders and many more are steadily increasing. However, when we dig a bit deeper, we see that in executive leadership positions women are over-proportionally represented as HR leaders and often the one woman on the board hap-pens to be the CHRO. Where are the female CEOs?

Why do we seem to redirect our focus away from this subject and onto the other aspects of DEI, instead of ensuring once and for all that we get 
to a point where female leadership becomes the norm. It appears to me that it is a lot more convenient to place one’s energy on a shiny new toy namely DEI instead of solving the old, tiresome ‘female leadership’ conundrum. Beating the same drum repeatedly – we want equal opportunities, we want equal pay, we are qualified, we don’t want to be the ones who must solve the issue of family vs. career. Boring… 

Let’s take a moment to figure out the different aspects that lead to this behaviour: Humans seem to have a natural tendency to surround themselves with people who are like them. If a board room is comprised of mostly men, a woman sometimes is seen as an unwelcome disruption to a well-functioning microcosm. This is clearly uncomfortable.

Ambition can be unnerving. I remember once being reprimanded by a
leader for having stated a career ambition; my boldness in the matter was viewed as being inappropriate. If a woman is ambitious this is still consid-ered pushy, for a man however this seems to be a natural characteristic.

Support vs. Networking. There are tons of networks out there that focus especially on women, yet what I am missing at times is female solidarity. We must make it the norm to support each other and learn from each other.

Reach for the stars. Women should never shy away from taking up a challenge and trusting in their abilities to excel. Apply for the position that you want to have, even if you might not tick all the boxes. Believe in yourself and be pushy if it gets you to the top.

So, let’s make sure that we finish  the job of having women in top leader-ship positions and not give up on the cause before we move on to the undoubtedly much needed other causes of DEI. It should not be a competition but a logical evolution.