Why are females still not achieving their potential?

Creating a bright future for all of us is quickly becoming a number one priority right now. Even billionaires are realising that extreme inequality is simply unsustainable

In fact, the World Bank believes the full agenda of increasing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is smart economics enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, including prospects for the next generation and social betterment. They say,

"No society, country or economy can achieve its full potential if girls and women don’t have the same rights and opportunities as boys and men"

What's more, one glance at the Economist glass ceiling index (their annual measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce) reveals there are encouraging steps forward in many countries, in many areas. Yet it is also clear to see that achieving gender equality is complex and there is no quick fix. This requires a whole-of society effort, which includes all of us, women and men at the individual level 

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, yet nobody thinks of changing themselves”

Adapted from Tolstoy

So, on a practical level - let’s start with ourselves …

Thinking about your own work life, have you ever wondered what’s really holding back women at work and what you can do about it? This is a question Jo and I asked ourselves – what can we do as co-founders of Progressfull to play our part in creating a world where female potential is unlocked?  

We could see this was vital because, the truth is, having worked for 20+ years in the business world we were often perplexed about why so many females are still not achieving their potential, so we determined to find out why. What was patently clear to both of us was that it was certainly not a lack of talent, nor a lack of hard work, nor a lack of commitment and definitely not a lack of loyalty

Our findings were frankly quite eye-opening and led us to create a mini masterclass so we could share what we learned about why females are still finding it difficult when it comes to ‘showing up’ and progressing in business

In recognition of the upcoming International Women's Day we are launching the new mini masterclass called Female potential (£50). International Women’s Day occurs globally on the 8th March every year, to honour the amazing women who have campaigned for women’s rights, and those who continue to do so today. So we thought it apt to launch our new mini masterclass at this time

Having worked with over 14,000 high performers and high potentials, we can see that there are many missed opportunities in businesses due to females at all levels not fulfilling their potential - from the new starter to the CEO - so we decided to make the mini masterclass accessible to all - hence the £50 price point

The mini masterclass shares what we believe inhibits, hinders and hampers females progress at work, plus tips and tools to explain what females can do to unlock their potential 

The mini masterclass means that everyone can find out what's really holding back women at work, learn and apply the findings so on a practical level we can create a brighter future for us all. And as a female you can start to learn and apply the findings to unlock your potential and make progress at work, inspiring and role modelling the great beliefs, behaviours, and mind-sets for the people around you

The Female potential mini masterclass (£50) shares details about each of the 9 Factors we believe inhibit, hinder and hamper females making progress in their work life

To give you a taster, one of the 9 Factors is about 'Business etiquette'. Most females haven’t learned when and how to be assertive, when and how to speak up, the power of their voice, and what to lead with – empathy and humility or confidence and courage – so default into tentative, exploratory, collegiate and/or empathic traits. We can vouch for this from our 20+ years of working in the business world - even today, working with plenty of fabulously talented high performing females, we still observe that most females haven’t learned how to do these things, and all are paramount for success in business. Females have been in the workplace for such a limited period, it stands to reason that they haven’t fully got to grips with the rules of play, the rules of engagement, or the etiquette of doing business. So, that’s why we have created the mini masterclass female potential (£50) - enabling females to progress at work

Knowing about the 9 Factors can help females get to grips with the seemingly intangible challenges they face and truly progress at work. We hope you will find our observations about what it takes to be successful at work and what things tend to trip females up – unconsciously and unwittingly – both enlightening and jarring

Enlightening so you can move forward, do something to effect change, whether you are a CEO, CPO, father, mother, brother, friend, or female in business

You can move forward as you know where to focus your energy and effort – unlocking the restricting mind-sets that inhibit, hinder and hamper females: the 9 Factors. Jarring because our observations are, at times, a tad disruptive – in the way hard truths often are. Yet this is a good thing and prompts progress - as Maya Angelou said,

"Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women"

Imagine if your daughter, sister, best friend, mother, grandmother – in fact all of the women you love and care about could fulfil their potential, creating a brighter future for all of us

"It takes courage to not only accept our limitations but embrace our potential"

You can learn more about the (£50) Female potential masterclass here