The good news is progress is being made, especially post-COVID. Looking at senior leadership roles, the ability to negotiate is implicit, whether in dealmaking, board level, or on behalf of your team. Globally, the proportion of women in C-suite positions is increasing. In 2021, 26% of all CEOs and managing directors were women, compared to 15% in 2019.

Even better, Australia is following suit. Women hold 25% of leadership positions among the top 20 largest companies, up from 15% a year ago. It’s not a bad statistic, given women only comprise 26.3% of all full-time employed persons in Australia. But we can do better. We need more than numbers and statistics. We need a universal belief, not lip service.

To be better negotiators requires increased female workforce participation rates and at the pointy end of organisations, please. Not only for providing much-needed and continued inspiration, motivation, and encouragement. But mostly, it makes it the norm. Then societal bias and ridiculous labelling, such as being aggressive, disappear.

While pushing for those top-end positions, don’t give us the hospital pass. Research shows women are more likely to be picked for top corporate roles when a company is in turmoil and not due to a prudent selection of skills suited to pressure situations. But because the risk of failure is high, discrimination as a subterfuge strategy. Each fall from grace, ‘failure’ further erodes trust in women as leaders. You can keep these glass cliff opportunities.

The shame of it- women are talented negotiators. Dare I say; we have the gift for it, all things being equal, with the blindfold, name changing and voice distortion, that is. It is almost proverbial that women are more skilled with emotional intelligence. As such, we pick up what is not being said more easily, i.e., the invisible ink on the deal.

Post–pandemic and during the great resignation, we got better at self-advocating. With the cost of the empty seat being too high, the talent shortage forced a relook at all biases- gender included. Let’s ensure our increased confidence in negotiating wasn’t a temporary change of narrative or blip of courage.

We must keep practising. There is a sharp dip in female workforce participation from our late 20s through to the late 30s. Yet, male participation remains stable, providing increased experience, ordinarily leant on for leadership positions. Consider the time taken out of the workforce for family commitments. Which athlete takes time away from their training, performance and competition and comes back ready, firing at the same level as those who haven’t been out of the game?  None.

Originally published by www.ceoworld.biz