Leadership: how to get out of the power complex?

During the week of International Women's Rights Day in March 2019, we wanted to reaffirm our commitment to gender diversity in companies and the development of female leadership through a series of videos on the subject. For more than 10 years, Talentis has supported several dozen major groups in the development of real diversity policies at all levels of the organization. Among other things, we organize seminars to enable talented women to develop their leadership and give their professional careers the full dimension they deserve. Find below episode 3 of this series: “Female leadership: how to get out of the power complex?”. Aude Bohu, Associate Director of Talentis and professional coach: “Hello! So today, I have a few questions to ask you: The first: “Why do some women have difficulty projecting themselves into positions of high responsibility? ”. The second: “Why can it be difficult for some of them to play the political game in force in their organization? Finally, the third: “Why can taking an adjusted position of authority be a challenge for some women? ” No doubt the women who fall into these descriptions have a small power complex. This power complex is one of the obstacles that limits women in their access to positions of high responsibility. How do you get out of this complex?

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#1 Clarify your relationship with power and develop a positive vision

First of all, it is important to clarify your relationship with power and develop a positive vision of it, that is, stop looking at what is bad about having power over something or someone, but rather looking at what power for something can allow. Such as making it possible to decide, to carry out projects, to make it possible to arbitrate, to transform the processes of an organization, but also to develop the business or even to develop individuals.

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Read also: “7 golden rules to develop your power of influence”

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#2 Adjust your position of authority to develop your feminine leadership

The second thing is to adjust your position of authority, to remain yourself, to accept to be the “boss”, to be firm in substance and flexible in form, so as not to fall into an authoritarianism that could be misinterpreted and misperceived.‍

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Read also: “Tips from 8 talented women to finally dare to be the boss in the office” - The Huffington Post

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#3 Reconciling with political meaning

The third point is to come to terms with politics and to consider political sense as a key and essential skill to develop when I am in positions of responsibility. To do this, several steps.

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Step 1: identify your obstacles to political meaning

The first is to identify what the obstacles I may have against political sense may be. Once these obstacles are identified, I must learn to remove them in order to be able to project myself into the game. But be careful, I don't get into the game until I've decoded the rules!

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Step 2: decode the rules/culture of my organization.

Look at what is explicit, but also observe, question, find out about what is implicit. What is not written in books. Integrating the rules and codes of my organization means showing that I am part of the club, that I belong to the club. But be careful, each club has its own rules. When I change clubs, the rules also change. It is therefore important at this time to reobserve, to question in order to reintegrate the new rules of the new game in which I am in. Once the rules are known and to play with pleasure, connect with the actors in your environment, decode their challenges, decode the circuits of influence, develop your alliances and work on your network.

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‍Conclusion: Finally, and to get out of the power complex once and for all, never forget that you are being observed, watched, in your words, in your actions, in your achievements. So, take care of your reputation, take care of your image and take particular care of your speech. Identify what to say, what not to say, who to say it to, and when to say it. Not to mention how to say it. If you adopt all these best practices, you can project yourself into the job of your dreams and go where you want to go when you want to go. See you soon!