Women Must Dodge Traps To Get To the Top - Building Gender Balanced Business

“(The) paper has been selected as it was one of the most impressive pieces of work the editorial team has seen throughout 2010.”— Emerald Group Publishing, in reference to Vanderbroeck’s article

THE TWO TRAPS

• The “men and women are alike” trap fails to recognize that women and men possess different leadership qualities, then penalizes women for not leading in the style of their male counterparts

• The “do as boys do” trap encourages women to behave like men to succeed, yet women are usually not well-received by others when they behave that way

“Women need to find and develop their own style in order to progress. They need to turn being different into a positive contribution that adds value to the business.” — Paul Vanderbroeck

To avoid the traps, women must embrace their strengths and work to prove that their unique leadership style is an asset. And rather than being “gender neutral,” businesses should become “gender bilingual,” recognizing the different yet equally valuable contributions that men and women make to the company.

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