Leadership roles are rewarding, challenging, and bring a great deal of job satisfaction. But these roles can also be lonely as a female leader.
Your people assume that you have all the answers, but what happens when you don’t? Who do leaders go to with their challenges?
It’s especially hard for female leaders to find the support that they need if they’re struggling or overwhelmed. There’s often pressure on women in leadership to present the perfect image of ‘having it all’. This is bad news for your performance, decision-making, and most importantly, your mental health.
Women leaders also tend to lack peers in their organisation who can relate to their specific challenges. Plus, that pressure to make ‘having it all’ look easy can sometimes make women more reluctant to open up about the emotionally tricky side of leadership.
So what can you do to overcome that sense of loneliness and thrive as a female leader?
Build A Network
Networking is a great way to build contacts and help you get ahead, but interestingly the way men and women successfully network is different. Men tend to have a very wide network but very few close connections.
It might be tempting to emulate that networking style, but there is some indication that women who do this are less successful. In this study, female leaders with close ties to two or three other female leaders were more successful than their counterparts who had a more male-dominated network.
Leadership doesn’t have to be a lonely experience, and having a support network in place will allow you to be more resilient. Resilience is an incredibly valuable skill for all leaders. Even if you’re not feeling isolated or lonely right now, proactively setting up a support network can be invaluable for when challenges arise.
Not sure where to start? Why not check out these 5 Quick Tips To Help You Easily Expand Your Network?
Spend Time With Your Social Circle
Make an effort to stay connected with your circle of friends outside of work. A strong circle of female friends outside the office can offset any loneliness you might feel at work. It also gives you a safe space to talk about topics that you may not want to discuss with colleagues.
Making time to socialise with friends can be helpful for your mental health, and some studies have even shown that friendships can positively impact your physical health.
Allow Yourself To Be A Little Vulnerable
Many leaders are terrified of allowing themselves to be vulnerable. They believe that being vulnerable opens them up to attack. But by not demonstrating vulnerability, they isolate themselves even further. By showing your vulnerability as a leader, you give your teams a chance to see you as a human being. Allowing people to see your vulnerability makes them feel trusted. It also reduces the isolation that you feel as a leader.
Vulnerability, applied the right way to your leadership practice, can boost staff engagement, drive creativity, and generate loyalty. How? By promoting a genuine human connection that’s often lacking in a work environment.
When female leaders allow themselves to be vulnerable, it helps to break down the barriers that trying to make it all look easy can bring. Not only does it reduce your loneliness, but it also gives other female leaders and aspiring leaders the reassurance that it’s ok to experience challenges.
How Leadership Coaching Can Help
Coaching can be incredibly helpful when you’re feeling isolated in your leadership role. It’s the perfect space to speak your mind and discuss your challenges with an impartial person who understands.
A leadership coach won’t criticise you, or make you feel like a failure. They’ll listen with an empathetic ear and then help you think things through and find solutions that work for you.
As a leadership coach, one of the best parts of my role is seeing my clients break through issues that had been causing them stress. A lot of the time, all it takes is someone to listen and help you gain perspective.
As a leadership coach, not only do I offer my clients complete confidentiality, I’ve got over 20 years of experience as a leader myself so I understand the challenges that female leaders face.
You don’t have to do it all on your own.
If you’re ready to ditch that feeling of loneliness, why not book in a call with me to see how I can help?
About The Author
Andrea Goodridge is the founder of Ad Florem, a leadership development consultancy that challenges leaders to challenge themselves. She has nearly 20 years’ experience of supporting senior leaders in Europe, USA and Latin America be their ‘true self.’ She spends her days encouraging senior leaders to take time out to focus on themselves, and move away from the ‘just do it’ solution mentality, so they can be more effective leaders and flourish in their personal and professional life.
You can connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.
