Leadership Presence Designed for Women
LEADERSHIP PRESENCE DESIGNED FOR WOMAN
I have been speaking and training on the topic of leadership presence for some time, but only lately felt the need to create a program designed especially for women. Our goal is to empower and make a difference in the lives of women. We have noticed, through our work with various businesses, workgroups and training events, that there really are different nonverbal behaviours that make a huge impact on how women are perceived in the workplace, as entrepreneurs, as leaders and to their own self-worth.
When women become aware of the correct nonverbal behaviour and learn to apply it, they harness the power of leadership easily, communicate effectively and make their interactions smoother, in all areas of their lives.
You see women are highly educated, they increase innovation, they are driven and make organisations more profitable, as published in a paper recently titled “THE CASE FOR INVESTING IN WOMEN”.
But here is the difficulty. Leadership presence and emotional intelligence don’t automatically come with your education, your talent for innovation, or your business results. Instead, leadership presence is entirely subjective. It all depends on how others perceive you and moreover how you perceive yourself. Women today face unique challenges when it comes to being perceived as leaders.
The most prevalent obstacles that have been identified are Unconscious Bias, the Double-Bind Paradox and the Imposter Syndrome.
LET ME EXPLAIN:
Few people would consciously think that a woman can’t be a leader. But Unconscious Bias appears in numerous studies. For example, one study showed, when researchers asked both men and women to draw a picture of a leader, they’ll almost always draw a male figure.
The Double-Bind Paradox states that as males rise in rank and status at work, they retain (and often increase) their perceived likeability. So they can be both powerful and likeable. But when women project status and authority in order to advance in the business world - the more powerful they appear, the less they are liked. Catalyst, an organisation that studies women in leadership, calls this the “dammed if you do, doomed if you don’t” dilemma.
The Imposter Syndrome is the fear of being exposed as a fraud, of feeling unworthy of your success. While both genders experience this, a female’s self-doubt is more likely to negatively impact her career when she doesn’t exhibit the self-confidence expected in a leader.
And then to complicate matters even further, women fall into verbal and nonverbal behaviour traps that rob them of their presence and confidence, and this unfortunately happens at an unconscious level. Here are three of those traps and some ideas on how to counteract them:
TRAP #1 - Sending nonverbal submissive signals.
TRAP #2 - Looking less than you are.
TRAP #3 - Staying invisible.
DO THIS INSTEAD.
Take up more space, sit up straight.
We often cross our arms and put our hands below the table on our laps.
We don’t do power gazing and make weak eye contact, sometimes due to cultural rules.
Sit up straighter and broader, spread the things you might be using in the meeting out a bit more wider in front of you, don’t put everything in a neat little pile.
Do not cross your arms (and yes I know it feels comfortable) but to the other people looking at you it comes across as low-confidence, even if you don’t feel that way, and never put your hands below the table, visible hands are good for building trust and connection.
Make sure to make good eye contact, between 60-70% of the time is the norm, if you are not sure, try making eye contact while you are speaking.
We learn amazing skills geared towards getting us ready for our professional life, but so few us have any idea that the majority of our communication skills are nonverbal. We don't learn these people skills at school.
So when we go into a pitch, an interview or a meeting, and only focus on the words we use, we are leaving our most powerful tool behind. Research has found that the right nonverbal cues help women portray higher levels of Power, Charisma, and Intelligence.
At the Art of People, we teach women the framework and blueprint to help them increase their presence and take their rightful place as leaders or business owners while staying authentic and likeable, and feeling worthy of their position in any team or organisation. When we are in charge of our own nonverbal behaviour and communication skills, everything becomes easier.
We have learned this fundamental truth and we aim to empower women who want to make a difference. Body language is after all an external display of our internal emotions, but there is scientific proof that states it actually works the other way around as well. “Your body language can shape your internal emotions, it’s called the feedback hypothesis (loop).”
If you want to be successful, win in business and influence people, you have to prep your confidence both inside and out. Your nonverbal behaviour matters.
Let us know how we can help.
To your amazing presence.
Tania
theartofpeople1@gmail.com