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The challenges of female leadership




This article was written by Anna Matard, coach in eco-leadership and female leadership.

Sheryl Sandberg*, notes about leaders in the US:

- Women always underestimate their own abilities.

- They negotiate very little for themselves in work teams: 57% of men negotiate for their salary increases and 7% of women.

- Men attribute their success to themselves, and women to external factors. If you ask a man "why did you do well on your assignment?" they will say "because I'm great, why do you ask!" A woman will say that someone helped them, or they got lucky, or they worked really hard.


Success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively for women. 1/3 of women in top management in profit and non-profit organizations have children, while 2/3 of men do.


This American data is consistent with European data. In France, women are paid 15% less than men for the same job.



In my experience of accompanying and coaching women entrepreneurs, I find that :


- More and more women are coming to me who decide to leave jobs that are not or no longer suitable for them.

- They dare to take the step of creating a work environment that makes sense for them and their values.

- When they struggle with the masculine, it is to increase their own skills, learn to assert themselves better and negotiate better.

- They do this all the better when they are serving useful missions for others and the planet.


What remains difficult to accomplish:

  • Improve work/life balance

  • Give enough attention to your own needs

  • Increase the size of your company and your turnover

  • Overcome glass ceilings, real and symbolic

  • Ensure self-leadership, beyond the success or failure of one's ego


Thanks to individual or circle coaching of women leaders, 8 new leadership capacities emerge or are strengthened:


  • An alignment with one's generative Raison d'Être (personal and in one's work).

  • A relational co-creativity made of trusting relationships.

  • An ability to move through chaos and uncertainty as a team and to honor these forces as the seeds of a new balance.

  • Authentic and empathetic communication.

  • The ability to foster collective intelligence so that common understandings and resonances are shared across groups and systems, within the company and among stakeholders.

  • Fair decision making and implementation, from a complex flow of information.

  • Constructive conflict management.

  • Strategic perspectives aligned with the evolving environment of one's work in relation to social-economic, political, cultural and global impact levels.


If you are interested in coaching, individually or in a circle of women entrepreneurs and leaders, contact me.

To reach me and make an appointment: +33 (0)6 30 74 42 70

I look forward to hearing from you.


*Businesswoman, head of operations at Facebook, former VP of sales and international business at Google

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