Promoting gender equality at a board level should be a crucial consideration across all office space in London, with the capital having a crucial role to play in encouraging more females into board-level positions.
Currently, women make up just 12.5 per cent of directors on FTSE100 management boards. As a result of this uneven divide, prime minister David Cameron proposed introducing a quota earlier this year for female board membership to ensure there was a more even gender divide.
Speaking at a summit in Stockholm in February, he said: “The case is overwhelming that companies are run better if we have men and women alongside each other. If you can’t get there in other ways, then maybe you have to have quotas.”
So how can companies improve conditions that ease female office workers into board membership roles in a balanced and fair way?
Writing for HR Magazine, Fiona Dent said a variety of leadership styles should be embraced to promote improved decision making and performance. This is an effective strategy, with research suggesting women prefer an inclusive style of leadership.
Ms Dent wrote: “Organisations that value different approaches and have a broader appreciation and awareness of what leadership effectiveness looks like, are ahead of the game with regard to diversity issues.”
Furthermore, Piya Khanna, success coach and founder of Change to Succeed, indicates that role models could help women climb the career ladder and eventually secure a place on the board.
According to the expert, women can benefit by seeking out a kind of mentor that is already successful in the field in which they want to succeed.
By making contact with this role model, they can gain inspiration, through speaking to them and discovering how they achieved their position in the company.
Ms Khanna said: “Look on the internet and ask people you know and then connect with those who are already successfully doing what you want to do. Shadow them if possible, speak to them and get their advice and insight on how they made it.”
Professional online network LinkedIn can be a useful resource for ambitious female office workers looking for contacts who can help them succeed.
