Top Tips on How to Succeed as a Senior Woman in Business

By Lucy Franklin, VP of Accordance

Lucy Franklin, VP of Accordance, gives her top tips on how to succeed as a woman in a male-dominated industry, while resetting the scales for other women.

When you make it into the senior leadership structure of an organization as a woman, you tend to find yourself in a distinct minority. Depending on the sector, this experience will be more or less acute. In my industry – finance and professional services– women are heavily represented in support functions but find their numbers reduced significantly in the higher ranks.

This means that as a woman in a position of power, there are additional challenges to face while at the same time there are responsibilities to help others succeed after you. It is no longer controversial to say we need the scales to be reset. There is a moral case for greater representation of women in business – and there is also a business case. Growing research suggests that including and promoting staff across all spectrums, genders, generations, ethnicities, sexualities and disabilities will see revenues increase. Not only this, but recent research from PwC found that 85% state that an employer’s policy on diversity, equality, and inclusion was important when considering whether or not to work for them.

Below are my top tips for women in leadership positions in the business world – detailing both how to excel, and how to make a positive change for other women in your sector and organisation.

1. Develop an effective talent strategy that banishes self-doubt

The reasons that prevent women from reaching senior positions are complex and multifaceted, and many sit outside of the control of individual business leaders. But self-doubt is undoubtedly part of the puzzle and is something that can be addressed in the workplace. In my various roles as Managing Director, CEO and VP I’ve seen countless dedicated, capable, hardworking women held back from reaching their full potential by self-doubt. If we don’t believe in what we can achieve and don’t put ourselves forward for senior roles that we could excel in, we are held back from where we could and should be. As a leader you have the potential to develop an effective talent strategy which addresses self-doubt and implements an internal framework for coaching and supporting people into the right roles.

1. Work on your own self-doubt

Rules are easier to set than to abide by, and senior women are by no means exempt from imposter syndrome and self-doubt. The niggling voice in the back of your head that tells you aren’t good enough will make your life, your role and your successes more difficult – so addressing it is vital. Having a mentor, executive coach or simply a support network of close friends and family members in whom you can confide doubts to is essential, and will keep you on the right path while keeping your imposter-demons at bay.

1. Make changes at all levels of your organisation

Words are cheap and good intentions pave pathways to everywhere and nowhere. To make a difference you must back up your ideas and beliefs with on the ground actions, at every level of the business. Diversity and inclusion training is essential, but isn’t enough. Job shadowing, career conversations, and talent reviews are good places to start in making bottom-up shifts. Equally, working practices which suit different people at different times in their lives – such as flexible hours, phased return, and care support are crucial for all staff, but go the extra mile in meeting the needs of women, who more often than men shoulder caring responsibilities outside of work. Finally, being committed to your objectives externally as well as internally is key – we have published our Gender Pay Gap reporting stats since 2019, even though we are not required to do so. It’s a statement of my desire for greater equality, and a metric for accountability.

1. Sing your own praises

As a woman in a senior position, you have to identify your successes and make sure others are aware of them. There is no space for modesty, false or otherwise. We need to be clear about what we’ve achieved and the impact we’re having – be it in company meetings, board presentations, among other senior staff or to the wider team. This doesn’t mean women should operate on a self-serving platform at all times, but we have to be the ones making our successes known. The majority of the business world to date has been built on men and their widely recognised successes. If we want to tip the scales, we can’t be afraid to sing our own praises. Those of others will follow.

1. Value life outside of work

No one can be expected to perform their best of their work is the only thing that is going right. People at all levels of a business and all stages of their careers need a fulfilling existence outside of work. In practice, this means enough down time and energy to spend being a person outside of the office. Cultures of excessive overtime and presenteeism are good for no one, and the burden often falls heavily on women who still carry the lion’s share of household and caring responsibilities.

The world is changing, and the world of business with it. But the motors of progress do not operate themselves – women in senior positions in the business world have a responsibility to move things forward, redress the imbalances that are in their power and help reset the scales.