#BTColumn – A case for women in leadership

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Alison Browne-Ellis

In another two months, I will reach my ten-year anniversary in my capacity as Director, Card Services for Cave Shepherd & Co. Limited.

This milestone happens to coincide with increased conversations about women in leadership followed by heightened calls to increase the number of women on boards and in other leadership positions.

Remarkably stunning to me even though not at all surprising were the results of a recently concluded gender diversity survey reported on by The International Women’s Forum (IWF) – The Barbados Chapter.

I have certainly been intrigued by the findings of this survey since I continue to be of the view that we as a country experience or suffer from a diversity issue more so than a race issue.

Focusing my attention on the findings for the financial services sector since this is where I have spent my entire career, the survey revealed that a whopping 25 per cent  of the total board positions available in this sector were held by women. That is 28 out of 111 as reported under the survey.

This forces me to consider the primary factors contributing to this level or lack thereof of diversity. Is this because we commensurately have more men than women in our population?

Is it that we have not moved away from our historical norms where more men were assigned to leadership positions or is it that women are not rising to the occasion?

Surely enough one can argue that it could be a combination of all these factors because I fail to believe that we are simply overlooking the progress being made by women across all sectors.

Nevertheless, as a woman in leadership, I firmly believe in practising active
self-reflection and self-awareness so as I continued to analyse the survey results, my thoughts wandered to how our leadership style and personal qualities could be contributing to our progress and by extension the recent survey findings.

In a recent publication, Professor Dr Justin Robinson articulated the importance of leadership style and how the various styles should be adjusted to ensure fit for purpose based on the situations presented.

The Professor further argued that those at the top can make or break organisations and I couldn’t agree with this more.

Quite encouraging are the global views suggesting that countries with women leaders have done a better overall job in handling the current pandemic.

Locally, we have seen strong and upfront leadership from our Prime Minister who continues to juggle economic fallout and a national health crisis supported by her team.

We also have Trisha Tannis and Misha Lobban-Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry who have been quite vocal in calls to get the economy back on track.

I have the honour of serving as a council member with these ladies. I am therefore very thankful for the sake of our future generations that we do have solid examples of strong, dynamic and unwavering women in leadership positions right here at home.

The main question I guess is how will we move forward to create greater balance in the level of gender diversity resulting in more women claiming their seats at the table.

In my book LIFE LESSONS A Purpose Driven Leadership Journey, I speak openly and highlight my own personal views.

“We as women have a significant role to play in this transition.

Our progress will be determined by how much time we invest in both our professional and personal development and more importantly how we as women continue to support each other.”

We must continue to be intentional about how we are showing up and owning our spaces with the goal of making an even greater impact where we are planted or where we choose to plant ourselves.

Notwithstanding, we must be honest with ourselves and work to close those gaps or blind spots that may exist in our leadership styles.

Heightened levels of emotional intelligence are required to ensure we can balance a posture of passion and assertiveness against the perceived notion that women in leadership must be tough or cold in order to be effective.

As women, a positive attitude and growth mindset is a new superpower. We need greater awareness to better manage those unguarded emotions, while also keeping our egos in check.

As we rise in leadership, we must show others that it is possible to climb the ladder and still remain humble and in touch with the pulse of the people we lead and serve.

It is also important that we are intentional to lift as we climb and do so with confidence in our own abilities allowing any insecurities to take a backseat.

I recall the excitement I felt when onboarding my new operations manager, a woman, to join the team.

In discussion with an associate, I articulated that I was looking forward to teaching her everything I knew only to be told and I quote:

“You better not, otherwise you might be out of a job.” I am sharing this story to highlight that this kind of thinking has no place in our future.

As we continue to rise as women in leadership and to claim our seats at the table while balancing the dialogue around gender diversity, we need a deeper respect for the power of womanhood.

We need to invest more in ourselves and to solicit feedback on our performance as we seek to continually evolve our leadership style.

We absolutely must increase our efforts at pouring into the women coming behind us.

Alison Browne-Ellis is a business executive, author and certified John Maxwell Team Coach with a passion for coaching and mentoring other career professionals.