What do professional women want? I’m delighted to say quite a bit.
I recently launched a survey titled Professional Development for High-Potential Women and I have been gratified and intrigued by the results.
So far – and it’s early days – here’s what I’ve learned from the respondents:
- 75% of these women own their businesses
- All have fewer than 6 employees
- All hold executive-level positions
Interpersonal skills
- A whopping 88% want to learn how to handle negative emotions more effectively. The next most popular topics (at 86%) are learning how to say “no” and negotiations.
- Half said they were good on listening and verbal communication skills. Bonus!
Conflict resolution
- Handling emotional behavior was the No. 1 choice, at 71%, followed by understanding personality types (67%) and managing change (57%). Ennergram coaching can help you to better understand the personality types of your team around you, as well as your own. To learn more, see here – https://cloverleaf.me/enneagram-coaching/.
- More than 57% said they could deal with difficult people and situations, which is stupendous news.
Management
- The top 2 topics under the management heading were goal-setting and getting top performance at 75%.
- Business literacy and determining your management style came in second at 71%.
- Other subjects that garnered more than 50% positive response include hiring, getting good information from others, dealing with generational differences, supervising others, delegation, creating problem solvers, time management, moving up or out, giving constructive feedback, establishing performance standards and getting your ideas across.
- The surprising part: More than 57% said they didn’t need assistance with making tough decisions/firing employees. I’m pretty sure, given the other information, that these women are one-person shops and they don’t have employees to fire. At least yet!
Taken together, all these topics contribute to women taking charge of their careers and their lives, as well as pumping up their influence and leadership skills. This makes a fantastic foundation for creating a professional development plan.
When it comes to leadership, in business and the public sector, women are making strides but still are woefully underrepresented overall.
Pew Research through 2014 showed that 26% of college presidents are women (the highest in the categories measured), compared to 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs. As pathetic as 5% is, it’s still the best showing ever; 20 years ago, there were no female CEOs on the Fortune 500 CEO. At all.
Women fare better – at 17% – as members of Fortune 500 boards. The downside: Fully 10% of Fortune 500 companies have zero female board members.
Women represent about 20% of members of Congress, and 24% serve in state legislatures. Only 10% of U.S. governors are women.
“Women have also made inroads into managerial positions and professional fields in recent decades. In 2013, over half of managerial and professional occupations in the U.S. (52.2%) were held by women, up from 30.6% in 1968,” stated Pew Research. “Even so, women continue to lag far behind men in senior management positions.”
Women-owned businesses
Is it any wonder women are starting their own businesses?
According to the National Women’s Business Council, as of 2012 there were nearly 9.9 million women-owned businesses in the United States. That’s an increase of 27% from 2007. Although 9.9 million is a huge number, there should be more women owning their own businesses. Understandably, it can be expensive to set up your own company, but there are organizations out there that can help aspiring entrepreneurs become successful. For an example of one of these organizations, read more here. Anyone can start a business with the correct support group around them. Some women have mentioned that their lack of business knowledge prevents them from following their dreams and starting their own business. If that’s the case for you, there are always ways to learn. For example, some women may want to look into taking a business administration degree online to give them some understanding of running a business. Hopefully, that will give women some confidence to start their own company. Bare in mind, many people will learn as their business grows too.
Other fascinating facts on women in business from that same report:
- Of non-farm and privately held businesses, 36% were women-owned, compared to 29% in 2007.
- Women-owned businesses generated $1.4 trillion in receipts.
- Nearly 90% were solopreneurs whose companies had receipts of $229.2 billion.
- Women-owned firms paid their employees $263.7 billion, about 26% more than in 2007.
- Women-owned companies with employees generated $1.2 trillion in receipts.
That’s great news not just for women, but for their families, employees and society as a whole.
Are you a high-potential woman who holds an executive-level position in a company (yours or someone else’s)? Are you interested in burnishing your management, personal and/or leadership skills?
If so, I’d love your input. Please add in the comments below.