1. Own your voice. Our perspective matters.

Role model to others how to have bold conversations, whether its sharing ideas or giving constructive feedback to peers, speak up.

There have been studies to show that women tend to receive less valuable feedback at work compared to their male counterparts. By modelling how you wish to be communicated with to others, you can begin to change the dynamic and will ensure as a leader, you are communicating effectively with every team member, holding everyone to the same metric of success.

2. Lead with Authenticity.

Your personality does not need to change when you become a leader. Read that again.

Whether your style is encouraging and enthusiastic, calm and centred, systematic and intentional or driven and direct (Insights Discovery); this is your preferred style and that deserves to be honoured. It’s what got you this far. It has been commonly reported that often women feel they cannot lead with femininity as it may be seen as a weakness with the opposite end of the scale showing that being assertive means they may be labelled (by both women and men) as being ‘the b*tch’.

When we invest in time to develop our own leadership style, built from our own core values and personality preferences, this is where the scales become balanced. We are able to lead in a way that feels natural but also be open to developing and growing as a leader to ensure sustainability, improve outcomes and elevate your career trajectory.

3. Celebrate mistakes

“Why would we do that?!” I hear you cry. Mistakes are what drives change. Mistakes can create magic. Mistakes can change the world (after all, both the Pacemaker and Antibiotics were created from a mistake!) Of course, sometimes mistakes are just that but from a mistake a lesson is learnt and that is a superpower. So why not celebrate it?

A common practice in certain Fortune 500 companies is to send flowers when a colleague has royally ‘messed up’. Why? Because it breaks the cultural mindset that we must strive for perfection and get everything right at all times. It models to your team that you value them regardless and to continue to thrive in moments of uncertainty. Those moments will stay with your team and will create a workplace culture that is not afraid to push the boundaries and takes risks for the greater good and that will lead to exponential results.