Giving your daughter these vital tips could help her in the future
If your daughter has her sights set on being a high flyer, then she needs to start planning now to ensure she has the right experience on her CV to help her compete successfully and make it to the top.
A new study amongst 49 senior and board level women in mostly FTSE 100 companies has revealed nine critical job assignments that a woman needs to have completed to be ‘board ready’.
The study was carried out by Dr Ines Wichert, a senior psychologist at the Kenexa High Performance Institute and expert on women in leadership.
Based on the experiences of these successful women, the nine assignments your daughter needs to plan into her career include:
· Stretch assignments that push her outside her comfort zone early on in her career to show her and others around her what she can do;
· Gritty and broad roles that include international assignments, operational roles with profit and loss accountability and working in different environments to build a solid set of transferable leadership skills;
· Roles that help make a name and build a leadership brand – as a change agent in a merger or downsizing assignment, a fire fighter in a crisis and as a corporate ‘intrapraneur’ (creating a new business, product or service);
The study also revealed other key success factors that are a must for future female leaders, they must actively engage in career planning, show courage to take on new and daunting roles and self promotion. They must also demostrate curiosity to try new roles, work environments and working styles.
Under representation of women at board level has long been of concern but research to date has been quantitative. This study forms one of the most comprehensive examinations of the experiences of senior business women and the findings have been compiled into a book called Where Have all the Senior Women Gone? 9 Critical Job Assignments for Women Leaders.