Women as Leaders

by Caroline Shannon (Dayton, Ohio)

Sharon Vosmek was busy planning an exit strategy when the CEO decided to resign from the company Vosmek had been working at as second in command for about three years. She was positive the company, Astia, would seek an external candidate, and then that person would bring in his or her own team. It never occurred to her that, perhaps, she could be a viable candidate for the position; that is, until the Astia community convinced her otherwise.

“I finally threw my hat in the ring for the position after the very loud and consistent support of others,” said Vosmek, who is now the CEO of Astia. “To this day I am surprised by my own lack of understanding that I had the very skills required to succeed as the CEO of Astia.”

Now, Vosmek works with Astia, a not-for-profit organization, to help build women leaders. It’s a fantastic initiative, but not one that comes very easily, particularly in an area like California, where Astia is based. As reported earlier this week, a recent study by the University of California-Davis shows that not much progress has been made in the realm of female leadership positions in California.

“Some people have described our corporations and workplace as masculinized cultures where the policies reinforce male values and behaviors,” said Dr. Jean Lau Chin, Dean of the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University. “Because they are viewed as commonplace and normal, there is little incentive or awareness to change them.”

Chin, who is also the author of “Women and Leadership: Transforming Visions and Diverse Voices”, says a perfect example of such bias is the flexible scheduled that some companies allow women so that they may also take care of their families. The thing is, however, is that some of those situations turn out to be a catch-22 in that if the woman works with a flexible schedule, she is viewed as not doing a complete job.

“The ability of our society and corporations to engage in changing the culture to reflect this diversity is threatening and anxiety proving,” Chin said. “It means giving up privilege and power, or at least sharing it.”

Chin says there are a few “feminist principles” that contribute to women obtaining leadership positions, including a commitment to social justice, relational connectedness and an understanding of shared power.

“These principles suggest that women often seek to lead in ways that engage others and to be collaborative in their decision making,” Chin said. “Some view feminist styles of leadership as transformational which many view as important to leadership in the 21st century.”

The principle of shared power is one that Vosmek says Astia is based. In fact, the company is consistently working to make sure their community benefits men and women — together. Astia works for a 50-50 ratio, and Vosmek says the effort is obvious in the air of any of their meetings or conferences.

Vosmek recommends that companies consider help, like the Corporate Leavers Project to help understand the hidden bias that goes on within a workplace. And most importantly, allow some room for error, seeing as how no one — man or woman — is without mistakes:

“We encourage women to pursue both the success of their businesses and their own personal-professional success,” Vosmek said. “What this does is give them license to take risks and make mistakes, but still progress and succeed in their careers.