J Dent Educ. 70(11_suppl): 54-55 2006
© 2006 American Dental Education Association
Mentoring, Role Modeling, and Networking: Personal Perspectives |
Strategies for Success in the Leadership Triad: A Working Group Report
Susan Silverton, M.D., Ph.D.
This working group included around two dozen women from several countries. Participants considered the following questions about leadership by women:
- Is leadership gender-specific?
- Are there barriers to leadership programs for women?
- Are there specific strategies to overcome gender barriers to leadership?
- Can we identify distinct leadership issues that might benefit from further research?
After a brief introduction, the group was broken down into three tables of six to eight. The women worked together on two tasks: 1) give an example of a barrier to women’s leadership, and 2) develop a strategy to overcome the barrier(s) you discovered. Groups handed in their reports with lists of barriers and strategies to overcome the barriers. Barriers were grouped into three qualitatively different areas: barriers to following a leadership track, barriers to being a woman leader, and barriers of gender and status.
In the first area, "Barriers to Following a Leadership Track," initial barriers to following a leadership track were identified as lack of time and inadequate personal skills to pursue leadership. Participants felt that women and men had higher expectations of women leaders, raising the bar for women following a leadership track. Some participants expressed the difficulty of being heard, describing a communication gap between women and those in power. Many participants commented on the lack of mentors and the difficulty of following a leadership track in the absence of a support group. Women faculty commented that traditional tenure, promotion policies, and culture are not conducive to the collaborative working style of many women. They also noted programmatic rigidity and inflexibility in their institutions. Participants pointed out the combination of barriers as challenges to women following a leadership track.
In the second area, "Barriers to Being a Woman Leader," while the barriers to following a leadership track were clearly identified as a disincentive to pursuing leadership, participants were also concerned about the challenges women leaders face once they have navigated the initial obstacles to becoming a leader. Many participants referred to male domination, or the "old boys’ club," to express their sense of being excluded from group support even though they had obtained leadership credentials and responsibilities. Several participants saw a critical transition point between following a leadership track and "doing it all" and continuing a dysfunctional inability to delegate responsibilities once their leadership becomes a reality. Participants worried about a possible sacrifice of personal values as their power as a leader increases: that is, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Some participants mentioned their perception that, in some organizations, women’s leadership may be viewed as a threat rather than being accepted. The group discussed why women let men take credit for something that was a shared success when men would not tolerate being left out of the credits if they had shared responsibility for the endeavor. Participants saw themselves competing with other women for scarce resources instead of participating in an equitable division of resources and labor.
In the third area, "Barriers of Gender and Status," participants made the following points: women and men see different barriers to success; male peer groups may not meet the needs of women; money and resources are not equitably apportioned between men and women; women have narrowly defined descriptions for acceptable behavior; family status in the community defines women’s status; family responsibilities are not shared equally between men and women; and there are no reentry points into leadership for women.
The working group also developed a list of recommended strategies for each of the three areas.
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Strategies for Pursuing Leadership
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- Take an inventory of current leadership roles you perform at work, at home, and in your community.
- Write a plan to intensify your current leadership roles and extend your impact to one additional setting.
- Develop a support group, find role models, and cultivate mentors.
- Pursue leadership training and practice.
- Develop leadership skills of communication, negotiation, transparency, seeking consensus, and forming coalitions.
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Strategies for Being a Leader
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- Strive to replace some of your tasks with leadership and delegation to others.
- Be authentic and use your own values when you make leadership decisions.
- Be fair and share leadership with others while negotiating your inclusion in the credits.
- Claim responsibility for success and mistakes.
- Don’t be divided from potential allies—women or men—by competing; collaborate to share scarce resources.
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Strategies for Supporting Gender Values Positively
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- Establish policies to provide more flexibility for women and men.
- Establish and use institutional policies that evaluate and review the equitable allocation of resources and workload.
- Develop an ongoing conversation with your institutional leader about support for your issues and values.
- Grow a support group with similar values in your workplace and community.
- Invite new faculty and students to join your discussions about values.
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Footnotes
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Dr. Silverton is Vice President, Academic Affairs, at Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada. Direct correspondence to her at Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada; 705-675-1151, ext. 3402 phone; 705-673-6522 fax; ssilverton{at}laurentian.ca.
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