Gender Partnerships Make Businesses Successful

A successful workplace encompasses both men and women.

An article from The Wall Street Journal states, “Men and women experience very different workplaces, ones in which the odds for advancement vary widely and corporate careers come in two flavors: his and hers.” Women must continually fight harder for promotions, challenging assignments, and leadership positions.

Placing effective programs into action to promote gender equality in the workplace is a great first step to take in any business to ensure men and women they will be treated equally.

The Institute for Women’s Leadership has approached this problem. On its website, IWL states, “For 25 years, the Institute for Women’s Leadership has been partnering with multinational corporations, federal governments, global non-profits, and emerging businesses to achieve ambitious and sustainable goals.”

Their main focus revolves around women’s leadership and enhancing Gender Partnership, leading them to establish the Institute of Gender Partnership. “We seek to optimize the full contribution of men and women rather than only advancing women’s leadership,” is the aim of the IGP. Men and women leading together in partnership is key to a successful business.

Women Leading Change is one IWL workshop that combines individual exercises, group discussion, small learning teams, and video conferences, all with peer and facilitated coaching.

IWL also focuses heavily on the concept of Contextual Leadership. This is described as the understanding of the role that a person’s individual and organizational context plays in shaping his/her perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.

This kind of concept is extremely relevant when it comes to gender equality in the workplace due to the fact that women have not always been seen as competent as men. As IWL highlights, “For many years, corporations operated from a context that said women could not be effective leaders.”

The founder and CEO, Rayona Sharpnack, has made progress throughout the United States, Australia, and Canada since 1992. She has had successful careers
in education, professional sports, and business, through which she has become an inspirational teacher, coach, and mentor.

Her clients include Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, universities, and non-profits. More than 20,000 professionals from Fortune 500 companies have, “relied on her to produce breakthrough results both at work and in their personal lives.”

According to IWL’s website, “Sharpnack’s outstanding leadership programs are known for advancing leaders and building high-performance organizations in multinational corporations and prestigious institutions and associations.” These programs stress the importance of approaching leadership in a way that each individual can embrace his/her role and work with others side-by-side.

There are various ways you can become involved with IWL and take a step forward to enhance gender partnership in the workplace. For instance, you can enroll in different women leadership programs and gender partnership programs. You can also receive consulting and executive coaching, which is designed to guide leaders through “personal re-invention experience that will enable them to achieve breakthrough results in their jobs and careers.”

Visit IWL’s website to become involved, and to learn more about their efforts in enhancing the workplace for women.

Featured Image by Gareth Williams on Flickr

Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

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