Fast Company Exist Design Create Video Features Emails Issues Subscribe Find Us Facebook Twitter SignOutFast Company leadership 3.1k Shares 7 Shared Traits That Unite Women In PowerWith more and more women looking to lean in, now is the time to examine the qualities that help female leaders get to the top.By Ekaterina Walter If we take a look at some of the most prominent female leaders, we can see that many of them share similar traits that have helped get them to the top of their professions.So what does it mean to be an effective female leader? And how does one get into a position of power?Many women at the top of their professions cite strong female family members, friends, or peers as a factor in their success, and its something they are passing on to their own children, friends, and colleagues.Ive examined the lives of some of the top women across many industriesfrom Arianna Huffington, president of the Huffington Post Media Group, to Maria Eitel, CEO of the Nike Foundation, to Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and others. Here are the characteristics they all share.

Effective role modelsA recent CNN opinion piece about how to have more women like Sheryl Sandberg concludes that it is the prominence of such women that inspires others to be like them: "We can create more Sandbergs by surrounding ourselves with confident, outspoken women." Sandberg herself actively works to encourage others by running a monthly salon with talks by inspirational women. The more role models we have across all industries, the more likely it is that the female leaders of the future will be inspired.Hard work"Though successful women are often prone to credit luck for their success, it is mostly hard work and perseverance that brings women to the top of their field," says Lucy P. Marcus, CEO, non-exec board director, prof at IE Business School, Reuters columnist and host of "In the Boardroom With Lucy Marcus," in an article for LinkedIn.No one is asking to be handed promotion on a plate. The women who have made it to the top have made it through sheer hard work and determination. But women who work as hard as their male colleagues need to be equally rewarded, and all too often this is still not the case.Confidence Confidence can mean a world of difference between a woman who is able to live her dreams and one who is notso often a talented woman is held back through lack of confidence. The former U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher was famous for her confidence and iron willand for her slogan "The ladys not for turning."In an article for the MBA@UNC, media pioneer Arianna Huffington cites lack of confidence as "a killer to success for women. In order to advance their careers, women need to be comfortable seeing themselves as qualified leaders and risk takers."SupportMadeleine Albright said, "There is a special place in hell for women who dont help other women."Many of the current generation of women leaders have credited a good support network in their success, and are now active in encouraging the next generation of women in their field.The MBA@UMC blog states that "Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and 'Change the Ratio' blogger Rachel Sklar are vocal about female inclusivity and encourage women to support each another at all levels."With support like that, the future of female leadership looks positive.KnowledgeChanging the mindset of what is the "right" career for a woman begins early. Women who have a good grounding in technology, math, science, and businessand who are encouraged to take those studies furtherare more likely to become the business and political leaders of the future. It isnt just the book knowledge that counts: Women need to know they can build a career that takes them all the way to the top.Seventy percent of the business leaders interviewed by Forbes believed that education about technical fields starts in childhood. The article quotes Lydia Thomas, the retired CEO of Noblis and co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences: "We have to capture women at a very young ageafter that it seems to be too latebecause women are not getting the emphasis in school. We need to encourage parents to encourage their daughters."VisibilityCNN recently stated that "as women, in many cases, the impulse to do something out of the norm of our peer group, like write an opinion piece or ask for a promotion, has simply never occurred to us. If it does, we don't act on it. Our girlfriends aren't doing it. Our female colleagues aren't doing it. Why should we?"The article makes a great point: Peer group attitudes shape our perception of "normal." So as a successful woman, I believe that it is our duty to be visible, to change what is thought of as "normal." Many women at the top of their professions cite strong female family members, friends, or peers as a factor in their success, and its something they are passing on to their own children, friends, and colleagues.Mentoringat all levelsMentoring is essential to encouraging the female leaders of the future: Identifying and overcoming obstacles to their career progression at the early stages can have a huge effect on their eventual success. This should start in school and be a part of every stage of a womans education and training. If you can identify opportunities and encourage women early on then they will be able to fulfill their potential throughout their careers. Some of the most prominent women had great mentorsand they are often now working as mentors to the next generation themselves.In a Forbes article, Dana DiFerdinando, CIO of Arena Pharmaceuticals, credits her mentor at SAIC for part of her careers success: "I think mentoring is critical and I actually had a great mentor at SAIC who had already achieved the highest level scientific position in SAIC. She was a physicist turned technologist and she really helped women."Everyones journey is differentand many are not easy. Hard work is the foundation of success, but the people and attitudes you surround yourself with, and the message you pass on to others, all contribute to a culture of female achievement that will take us into the future.[Roots Image: CoolKengzz via Shutterstock]Facebook Twitter Share

Ekaterina WalterEkaterina Walter is a business and marketing innovator, an author of the WSJ bestseller Think Like Zuck, co-author of The Power of Visual Storytelling, and Global Evangelist at Sprinklr. Continue June 4, 2013 | 6:00 AM YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKEAdd New CommentSign In Top of FormSubmit Bottom of Form0 Comments No comments yet. Be the first! These Are The Most (And Least) LGBT-Friendly Workplaces In The U.S. The Future of Work October 5, 2015 Lydia Dishman The Subtle Red Flags To Watch Out For When Hiring Lessons Learned October 5, 2015 David Lumb Why Are We So Obsessed With Failure? Hit The Ground Running October 4, 2015 Harvey Deutschendorf From Becoming A Genius To Going Sugar-Free: September's Top Leadership Stories October 1, 2015 Fast Company Staff This Is What The State Of Freelancing In The U.S. Means For The Future Of Work The Future of Work October 2, 2015 Sara Horowitz Getting Creative About Benefits For Working Parents With Midweek "Playdates" Second Shift October 2, 2015 David Zax Try These 5 Steps For Learning New Skills Faster Know It All October 1, 2015 Sean Kim How To Ditch Your "Problem Customers" Lessons Learned October 1, 2015 Ryan Holmes 3 Ways Companies Are Changing The Dreaded Performance Review Lessons Learned October 1, 2015 Stephanie Taylor Christensen The Psychology Behind Why People Steal Their Coworkers' Stuff Know It All October 2, 2015 Art MarkmanSee MoreAdvertisementHappening Now Trending 1. Twitter Officially Names Jack Dorsey As CEO 2. Tesla's Model X And The Mainstreaming Of The Electric Car 3. Pentagon: Contractors Must Report Cyberattacks 4. You Can Now Shield Your Tumblr Blog From The Internet 5. This Is How We Watch Porn On Our Phones, According To Pornhub 1. 8 Habits of People Who Always Have Great Ideas 2. Tesla's Model X And The Mainstreaming Of The Electric Car 3. The Subtle Red Flags To Watch Out For When Hiring 4. What It Takes To Change Your Brain's Patterns After Age 25 5. The Ethical Quandaries You Should Think About The Next Time You Look At Your Phone

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Women mentoring womenhttp://www.apa.org | They may not be easy to find, but women mentors appear to make all the difference in the academic careers of women graduate students.By MARGARET SCHLEGEL November 2000, Vol 31, No. 10Print version: page 33Mentoring has become a hot topic in graduate departments these days, and women students in particular are urged to find mentors who can help them navigate their careers and guide them in successfully combining full-time careers with satisfying personal and family lives.But where are the women mentors to lead the way?"Most of us have not had role models for how to do this, and all of us are thinking of starting a family in the near future," says Diana Salvador, who is finishing her PsyD at Rutgers University. "As graduate students, we desperately wished we had had mentors that could have shown us how it could be done well.""The women in leadership roles and who also have family responsibilities are the psychologists many female students want to emulate," says Carol Williams, former chair of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS). "But these women also seem to be the psychologists who have the least time to mentor."Ruth Striegel-Moore, PhD, professor of psychology at Wesleyan University, sees the shortage of female mentors as a function of the contemporary role of women faculty in most psychology departments."Universities are urged to involve female faculty members in all aspects of university life, so women are pressured to be on every committee, board and decision-making body," says Striegel-Moore. "Many of these same women are assistant professors who are working to gain tenure and have young families. There are only 24 hours in a day, and only so many students a female faculty member can responsibly take on."She also notes that psychology has recently attracted more women than men, and these women want female mentors. These students think that female faculty have something unique to offer. All positive developments, no doubt, but also the reasons behind the imbalance between supply and demand for female mentors.Empowering relationshipsSome might argue that in psychology, female graduate students have faculty advisors and doctoral dissertation chairs. Why is it important to have mentors as well?Mentors differ from advisers in that they provide both psychosocial functions, such as role modeling, acceptance and affirmation, as well as career functions, such as sponsorship, coaching and networking, say the experts.According to Lucia Gilbert, PhD, at the University of Texas at Austin, not only do female graduate students need mentors, they particularly need female mentors who can model the greater diversity in women's lives today. Her research shows that female graduate students, more than male students, rated the same-sex mentor's lifestyle and values as highly important to their own professional development.Gilbert also stresses that female students working with female mentors may provide an important antidote to some women's socialization to please and defer to men. Rather than being in a relationship of unequal power, in female mentor-female protg relationships, students may learn that empowering relationships mobilize the energies, resources and strengths of both people.Salvador, while getting her master's degree at Boston University, experienced that kind of mentoring from Kathi Malley-Morrison, EdD. In this relationship, she found someone who listened respectfully to her ideas, even when she disagreed with them, who believed in her, even when others doubted her abilities, and who talked about her own real-life struggles as a psychologist and a person."She didn't tell me what to do," Salvador said. "She empowered me."Roxanne Manning, now in her internship after completing coursework for her clinical doctorate at State University of New YorkBinghamton, said that without her first mentor she would have dropped out of graduate school."I went through a number of personal challenges in the first year. My father-in-law became terminally ill and moved in," she explains. "My niece and nephew had problems and needed to stay with us. I felt overwhelmed. But my mentor encouraged me to hang in there. She told me that as a professional psychologist, I would face similar personal challenges, so I needed to learn to face them while doing my graduate work. She believed I could do it, so I began to believe I could do it, too. And I did."Manning also noted that throughout the relationship, her mentor stressed prioritizing her values and saw her as a whole person, not just as a student or future psychologist."She had a family and children and she helped me to see that no one could 'do it all,' but that everyone could do what was most important to them," Manning says. "By helping me define what was most important to me, she helped me develop my own definition of success. That has been incredibly important to me as I've made major decisions, such as to have a baby before beginning my internship."Along these lines, Striegel-Moore notes that female mentors are important in showing that professional success can be achieved in nontraditional career trajectories."Many successful female psychologists have taken some time off after graduate school and started families, and their careers have blossomed after their children are in school," she says. "It's important for female graduate students to see these women and to know that success can be achieved in a number of ways."Other psychologists, such as Beverly Greene, PhD, don't believe that the gender of the mentor is critical. The important point is to have a mentor. Greene, professor of psychology at St. John's University in New York, who won two APA Div. 12 (Clinical) awards for mentoring this year (one for the clinical psychology of women and one for ethnic minority psychology), had a male and a female mentor and stated both were significant in furthering her career.Her male mentor, William Johnson, PhD, helped her develop a culturally sensitive model of psychodynamic clinical practice, a model that still guides her work today. Her female mentor, Dorothy Gartner, PhD, encouraged her to develop her teaching skills and urged her to write and publish, which ultimately led to her career in academia. Without this push, Greene says she would never have considered an academic career.Recent research also suggests that a mentor's gender may not matter. Faith-Anne Dohm, PhD, of Fairfield University, recently surveyed women in clinical psychology with regard to whether they continued to do research after getting their doctorate. She found that those who had research mentors during graduate school were twice as likely to do research after getting their degree than those who did not have mentors. In her study, the gender of the mentor did not make a difference in whether the protg went on to do research.Carol Williams, now APA's associate executive director for the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, also did research on mentoring and found that gender does make a difference to female students."Women can have good and supportive mentoring relationships with men; however, women want mentoring relationships with women as well--and female students want women mentors who are willing to expose more of their personal sides," she explains.Her research, not yet published, also supports claims that female mentors in academia may be hard to find.Finding a mentorOne of the most difficult parts of the mentoring relationship is finding the right person. First, you have to know what you need. Career guru Richard Bolles suggests making a list of what it takes to succeed in your chosen profession--knowledge, skills, personality traits, experience, etc.--then subtract what you already have. Next, look for a person who has the remaining attributes and go after that person as a mentor. That formula assumes there is a large pool to choose from.But even so, the "going after" is a bit nebulous. Many psychologists believe that the best relationships seem to just happen "naturally." A conversation begins, you have more conversations and pretty soon, you realize you have a mentor.Manning found her mentor accidentally. She literally bumped into her in her first week in graduate school when she was lost in the maze of offices in the psychology department. Manning went into the wrong office, and she and her mentor simply began talking. Manning thinks that the psychologist sensed that Manning was lost in more ways than one, and took her under her wing."She wasn't even in the clinical program," Manning says, "But I've learned that that doesn't always make a difference. So, I'd urge students not to limit themselves to their specialty areas when it comes to looking for a mentor."Saira John, a counseling psychology student at the University of Memphis who has completed all but her dissertation, never did find a mentor in graduate school."The faculty members whom I was most interested in were too busy to take on another student," she says. "But I kept looking, because I knew it was important. The students who had a mentor seemed to have an edge over other students. They presented at national conferences. They met influential people in specialty areas. They seemed to have more direction and got through the program faster. I don't think they received any special favors. The personal and professional relationship with their mentor just seemed to motivate them to work harder."Striegel-Moore advises students to think of the mentoring relationship in terms of mutuality--give-and-take. Before approaching someone you think you'd like to have a relationship with, think of what you have to offer. It may just be enthusiasm for that person's research and a willingness to contribute to it. Ask if the psychologist has lab meetings that you could sit in on to learn more about his or her research. Even if the topic of the research isn't exactly what you are interested in, you can learn a lot about the research process that will be transferable, she says.She stresses that if the first person you approach is not receptive, you should move on to others. In fact, she says, it may be a mistake to think of mentoring in terms of one person--it puts too much pressure on a single relationship. A mentoring network, she says, in which a series of relationships meets different needs may be a more realistic way of looking at mentoring for female graduate students in psychology.Manning agrees. In addition to the faculty member who first mentored her, she found mentors in her field placements, who provided different kinds of career guidance. She suggests that if students are having difficulty finding faculty mentors, that they ask their graduate programs for lists of others who have gotten their graduate degrees from the program and find out if they are still in the community. If they are, she advises, call them up and strike up a conversation about their strategies for succeeding in graduate school and about what they are doing now. They may be willing to help you along, she says. As a result of her positive experiences with mentors, she has started a mentoring program for undergraduate students.Manning is now specifically looking for someone who will mentor her as she writes about her research and attempts to get published. She is up front about her goals when she talks with potential mentors and also about what she has to offer in return. From the student lost in the psychology department to the focused and confident intern and new mother, Manning has clearly found her way. And she would be the first to tell you that mentors played no small part in her journey.Margaret Schlegel is a freelance writer in Falls Church, Va. 2015 American Psychological Association

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View DivineCaroline HereDivineCaroline is a place where women can connect, express, discover, challenge, learn and, of course, be entertained. Its for people who want to write about their day or their life but its also for people who want to read real voices. There are Stories here from professional writers, but the majority of our content and the biggest part of who we are comes from Members. Whether its Stories, Reviews or Forums.At DivineCaroline, youll be spending time with women who embrace the fact that life isnt always easy or beautiful or fair. Our dream is to give you a place to come together to express yourselves. What brings you joy. What breaks your heart. Makes you giggle. What pisses you off. Confuses you. Entertains you. What keeps you strong.Check out Divine CarolineMore articles from this author: Use Your Brain When Going Back to School Life, Take 2: Five Remarkable Late Bloomers The Secrets Behind the 10 Happiest JobsConnie Glaser | DivineCarolineWhen looking for a mentor, does gender matter? Some researchers believe it does and that your choice should depend on what youre looking for in the relationship.Female mentors appear to be better role models, but male mentors may be better at leading the way to the top of the corporate ladder. Thats the conclusion of a Pennsylvania State University study that involved 200 menteesall graduate students, ranging in age from twenty to fifty-seven. Specifically, researchers surveyed 115 men and eighty-five women who rated 139 male and sixty-one female mentors from many industries on a variety of factors.In essence, women excel at offering personal support, friendship, acceptance, counseling, and role modeling. With women guiding you, its often more about commitment and chemistry with the emphasis on personal growth and development, rather than about promotions.By nature, female mentors also tend to be warmer and more approachable, as well as more willing to share pieces of themselves. Naturally, female mentors are better at offering advice on bridging the divide that often exists between men and women in the workplace. After all, theyve been in the trenches; they know how to play the game.With female mentors, there is also no danger of sexual harassment or sexual undercurrents in the relationship. Granted, as Joan Jeruchim and Pat Shapiro, co-authors of Women, Mentors, and Success, note, female mentors often lack the power to link their protgs to important people or to sponsor them for key committees or projects. Nevertheless, you can generally count on more bonding, nurturing, and confidence-building with a female mentor.The male advantage? In terms of career development, which involves functions such as sponsorship, protection, providing challenging assignments, exposure, and visibility, both male and female protgs in the Penn State study said they received greater assistance from male mentors. Study authors John S. Sosik, PhD, and Veronica M. Godshalk, PhD, agree that much of this might be associated with stereotypes of men and women in the corporate world.Both men and women perceive men as possessing more and different forms of power than women, Godshalk confirms. Within traditional male-dominated organizations, both male and female protgs may shy away from female mentors when seeking career development functions leading to promotions.In fact, in their study, male mentors emerged especially effective at helping female protgs. Among other things, male mentors can help female protgs overcome discriminating barriers in place at traditional organizations, says Sosik. They may also be better positioned to make critical introductions for you.In many surveys, however, a mentors gender is not an issue. More important is that the chemistry works and that you and your mentor work well together toward achieving the same goals.