What are the opportunities for seasoned women to contribute at a higher level?
Convention assumes that this part of the workforce is on the way out – and bias reflects this.
But let’s put the puzzle together:
- By 2030, 1 in 3 Americans will be 50 years of age or older. And 1 in 5 will be 65 or above, and few people are retiring at that age.
- The future of business is gender-equal.
- Diversity drives innovation.
- Women are often still an untapped source of greater potential.
- There’s no substitute for experience.
What picture have you come up with?
My vision is one of seasoned women rising to greater positions of influence.
Women in the workforce are often a huge source of untapped potential for a variety of reasons (that’s another article!). Additionally, people are not retiring at the young age of 65 anymore. Consider, then, that since diversity drives innovation and brings perspective, this means that we aren’t paying enough attention to supporting and elevating the potential leadership capacity of our more seasoned women.
Why should we focus on this?
- Companies recognize they need to remain competitive and in the black. The compelling business case for elevating the female factor in the workforce has already been made. And doing more with less is now the name of the game for those entities that want to remain viable and competitive. Delayering old hierarchical models results in assigning more responsibility throughout the organization. And quite simply, supporting full engagement and potential of all employees, men and women of all ages, is the smart thing to do in order to best benefit the company.
- Mental development and the capacity for greater leadership doesn’t stop at a certain age. Human beings are capable of continually growing their mental complexity over the span of their lifetime. This is a somewhat “recent” discovery, as psychologists and scientists in the 1980s declared that a human being’s mental development stopped in his or her 20s. Thirty years later, we now know that continuous growth in mental complexity is possible. This means that people of a seasoned age can also learn “new tricks” – meeting the demands of the world through advancing in social and emotional intelligence skills and complexity, allowing them to step into greater roles of responsibility and leadership.
- Women need female role models and mentors all the way to the top. Women often don’t aspire to higher leadership because they aren’t sure they will be recognized and rewarded. They don’t see other women modeling the way, with few or none at the top. In fact, millennial women are leaving companies in large numbers, reporting that they don’t believe there is a chance for them to ascend the career ladder. What if we could support and encourage experienced older women to step up, no matter what their position, to take greater personal leadership by mentoring and modeling?
So where do we start?
As with any sustainable change initiative, companies need to work at all levels to support employee growth and potential. But the women themselves also have important work to do. They need to affirm their own worth, recognize the opportunity, formulate a vision for their leadership, and seek strategic support for this vision.
And as with any worthy endeavor, it is going to take all of us to get there.
Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.