On this platform, you can already discover several learning modules on this: on personal growth, “Discovering your own strength,” “Interpersonal skills,” and others.

Three aspects should be added:

1/ Conversations with women who have been able to grow into leadership positions in public administration and private industry revealed that it was not necessarily the goal to hold a higher position. The focus was on the desire to develop professionally, to take on responsibility, and to give concrete shape to their own abilities. This does not rule out that women are ambitious and deliberately pursue leadership positions.

2/ It is often professional and personal networks that enable women to take on higher positions — just as it is often relationships among men that pave their way. In networks, women can support one another by encouraging each other, passing on information, advising, providing a forum to discuss worries and questions. Networks, regular meetings for supervision, idea generation, or reflection on current projects can also be experimental fields for new things, in which a culture of making mistakes is lived out and women grow beyond themselves. In such groups, however, the ambivalence of solidarity among women can also be experienced. They often perceive one another as competitors and yet strive for cooperation. It is worth thinking about this together.

3/ When it comes to the question of how more women can be brought into leadership positions, one question is often neglected: How do they want to shape their power? What accents do they want to set? Should they conform to the culture of the organization or company? Or should something new be ventured that is more in line with their own approach? And what constitutes this? What are the goals for this? How should they be achieved? Under what conditions can the approach be implemented? What is needed for this? Are modifications required? What are one’s own strengths? Where are the limits, what “red lines” would exist? What would count as successes? What difficulties might arise — for example, if employees who might themselves like to be the leader do not respect the role? Is one lonely in a leadership position? How should one deal with that?

Let yourself be inspired on these and further questions by the modules “Foundations of effective leadership,” and “Ethical leadership,”