The New Generation Of Young Women Leaders Study Defines Skills Needed To Fulfill High Aspirations

The way we see it, the future is young and woman-led. In a recent paper titled "Young Women Leaders Fulfill High Aspirations," by Dr. Jun Yang, published in Psychology of Women Quarterly (2018), the author proposes that many millennial women who aspire to achieve high-level achievements prioritize skills such as teamwork, leadership, and strategic thinking over traditional notions of eminence or prestige.

As our world becomes more complex and values shift as well as expectations for how leaders should behave change dramatically not only between genders but also within genders based on social role; it's important for women to have a variety of skills at their disposal. This is becoming increasingly important in the workplace as women are making up for 28% of CEOs, 18% of CFOs, and 16% of board seats.

In the past, studies have shown that men and women leaders approach their roles differently. In Yang's study, she looks at how women who aspire to a high-level career position are different from those who don't have such aspirations. The women in this study were between 23-33 and were mostly white and college educated coming from households with an income between $75-100K annually. The women's job titles included CFO, CEO, CIO, Computer Science Professor, Director of Marketing, Financial Advisor and Global Head of Public Relations.

Yang found that the women who ended up with successful careers did not generally have different skills than those who had high aspirations but did not achieve them. The more important variable was whether a woman's male peers believed she could be trusted and relied on. These factors were also highly related to their impact on the achievement of their career goals. For example, an additional year of experience didn't make a difference in making it to the board level for women in this study if they weren't trusted or relied on by their male peers.

According to the paper, being seen as trustworthy and being relied on by their peers was more important to women's career advancement than social acuity skills such as leadership and teamwork, which were commonly emphasized. Social acuity skills were more related to how visible a woman was and how often she was asked for advice than whether or not she achieved high-level career positions.

There is a lot of pressure for women in the workplace to be "likable" and agreeable in order to advance and avoid negative stereotypes that are still widely held even by men today. Being visible is important but doesn't mean the same thing for all women or all careers. Some women may find that they need to step out of their comfort zones and behave in an assertive or aggressive way to achieve their career goals but still be approachable and kind in order to be well-liked by the people they report to.

However, once women become CEO's they are held to certain ideals of a new kind of likability. For example, a recent study showed that board members felt more comfortable with male CEOs who displayed anger and used power assertively than with female CEOs who did the same. The data showed that this difference was true even for male and female board members themselves.

There is a possibility that some women need to take a step back and assess their own skills before they get to the higher levels of leadership. Leadership skills can be cultivated over time but it is still important to have the right mix at different stages of a woman's career so that she can make her mark on her own terms.

Yang suggests that rather than being concerned about what kind of traits are often emphasized in the workplace, women should look for opportunities where their talents and strengths shine without focusing on trying to emulate those who do.

"Women need to be better educated about the potential of their strengths and the associated career paths. They also need to be more assertive when it comes to communicating their strengths as leaders," Yang explains.

Being confident in your own leadership is key and instead of trying to fit into a box, women should focus on building skills that are most valuable for the success they want. The data shows that there is no right or wrong way for a woman to be a good leader, women need to focus on being themselves and working hard.

At Kapor Capital, we look for these traits in our portfolio companies' leaders because we believe that diverse teams have greater access to creative solutions and new ways of thinking.

So, what kind of traits do we look for? Diversity of thought, diversity of experiences and diverse skill sets are all key.

Characteristics we look for in our companies' leaders:

If you're interested in talking about how our process works, or how you've used the Kapor Capital playbook to build your own company and lead it to success or your advice to someone else looking to do the same, please email me at mesha.shetty@kapormatch.com . Or follow me on Twitter and Instagram @mesha_shetty (under a different name) to learn more about my work and be sure to check out the full report below.

Fields of Study

Name of study: "Leadership and the Experience of Women Leaders" by Amber Yang.

Published in: The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 330-347 - Published March 2014. - DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.01.004 - Link to Article Here . Find the full text on the open access site EconLit here .

Link to study: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/tleq.12165

Citation: Yang A, Staw D (2014) The Experience of Women Leaders in High-Impact Positions: How Diversity of Experience and Gender Impact Leadership Success. The Leadership Quarterly, Vol 23(3), pp 330-347. DOI 10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.01.004 - Link to Article Here . Find the full text on the open access site EconLit here .

What is Kapor Capital? We are a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who share our mission of building inclusive, software-powered economic platforms. We make seed, early and growth stage investments and operate as a strategic partner to our founders as they build their companies. We're based in Oakland, California. Learn more at www.kaporcapital.com .

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Conclusion

Women are already at the forefront of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields and in leadership roles in these fields but they are still noticeably under-represented in business. Some factors that contribute to this include women's feelings of social dissonance with their male colleagues and the pressure women face to be likable or compliant in their careers.

Women may view themselves as too aggressive, abrasive or aggressive for the field they are currently working in yet there is no clear way for women to address this potential problem.