Mental Health Tips For Women In Leadership by Olivia Jeanne Tyler
More women are in leadership roles today than they used to be. According to a recent gender gap report from the WEF, the global gender parity has reached 42.7% in 2022 — the highest parity score by far. Women have been steadily taking on more senior and leadership roles over the past five years.
In line with the progress being made, however, there is understandable pressure that builds for women in leadership roles. Female leaders are often held to different standards compared to their male peers, and the inherent and unconscious gender biases in the workplace can negatively accumulate over time.
Women leaders have the power to shape and change workplace culture
Despite big improvements in the statistics, the gender disparities in leadership across industries can often feel isolating for women. Female leaders often resort to keeping their feelings to themselves and lack a support system that could otherwise help maintain their mental health. On top of this, working in top executive leadership positions is very stressful as their decisions determine whether an organization succeeds or fails. Today, we’ll look at some mental health tips if you are a woman in a top leadership position:
Create a wellness strategy
As leaders, the importance of managing our thinking and reducing harmful stress shouldn’t be ignored. For women leaders to stay creative and reach peak performance, it’s essential that you come up with a wellness strategy that prioritizes your well-being and, subsequently, your ability to lead better. A good wellness strategy will allow you to focus on not only your health and wellness outside of the workplace but also increase your productivity and ability to focus. Small mindfulness practices like five minutes meditations can help your mind reframe negative situations into positivity and passion, keeping potential burnout at bay.
Delegate tasks across your team
Women leaders can benefit from efficiently delegating tasks among team members and employees to avoid burnout. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work or accomplish tasks at all, but it gives you the space and time to prioritize essential ones. American professor and author Brené Brown lives by the words a priest once told her: “If you don’t want to burn out, stop living like you’re on fire.” Setting boundaries between your work and your life starts with recognizing that you don’t have to do everything alone and that, most times, you don’t have to do everything. Delegation can also extend to delegating authority to a team member to keep note of things on your days off. This will allow you to enjoy time off without worrying about work, knowing you can rely on someone to keep you up to speed once you get back.
Create a positive working environment
Finally, women leaders have the power to shape and change workplace culture. Prioritizing a positive and less stress-driven workplace can be empowering, not just for yourself as a leader but for your team members and employees. Improving your workplace culture can also lead to more diversity in the workforce and even start a mentorship cycle. In a feature on women in biotech leadership, they emphasize the importance of a working culture that values diversity, where everyone works towards the same goal and champion collaboration. A work culture that encourages everyone to help one another and work together will reduce the likelihood of conflict and stress brewing.
If you are a woman in a leadership position, we hope the above tips prove useful.
Post contributed by Olivia Jeanne Tyler for jamesmapes.com
James Mapes is the founder of Quantum Leap Thinking™, creator of The Transformational Coach™, expert on the psychology of “applied imagination,” best-selling author, highly acclaimed business speaker, consultant, seminar leader and personal excellence coach.