Co-authored by Sarah Hopkinson and Dr. Johanna Pagonis
Dr. Johanna Pagonis is the CEO and founder of Sinogap Solutions, a leadership consulting firm that supports organizations in achieving their mission by maximizing the human potential across their workforce. Johanna completed her PhD in adult education, which examined how to transform managers into emotionally intelligent leaders.
As part of Johanna’s research, she explored the power of self-reflection and how it can be leveraged to help leaders connect more deeply with themselves and others. Self-awareness helps us overcome our unconscious biases by understanding how our limiting beliefs prevent us from creating inclusive workplaces.
Johanna recently launched Woman Up! Ignite the Leader in You, which is an 11-week program to help women embrace their female power and beat the odds of working in male-dominated industries. Johanna was motivated to create the Woman Up! program through some of her own experiences, where she lived through several instances of sexism and women being excluded from career opportunities.
Johanna shared a story about a time when she arrived to work one day, and all the male managers were not in the office. When she asked where all the men were, she was informed that they were invited to participate in a golf tournament. Unfortunately, none of the women had been invited.
It is during these social gatherings that employees are provided a chance to bond with senior leaders and learn about opportunities across their organization. But when only men are invited to participate, women become excluded from career promoting opportunities. This creates a dynamic of men having their careers supported at the exclusion of women and can create a homogenous leadership team that primarily represents its own interests.
Johanna points out that the leadership gender gap is not due to men being genetically predisposed to be better leaders, it is because systemically men have greater access to career developmental opportunities than women.
The confidence-gap theory, which states women are less confident than men, is a theory that deserves to be debunked. Studies have shown that women have as much confidence as men, but women tend to face additional challenges, such as being excluded from various opportunities, which can undermine the faith they have in their own abilities.
Dr. Johanna Pagonis
That is why Johanna developed a leadership program for emerging women leaders. Woman Up! is designed to help women overcome the challenges they face in the workplace and give them tools and support they need to experience a successful and fulfilling career.
Woman Up! is open to all women, particularly women who are in the first few years in a formal leadership or entrepreneurial role. Johanna built the program to tackle issues that are common to women in the workplace, such as how to feel confident in your decisions and actions even if you’re the only woman in the boardroom. The 11-week leadership program aims to equip women with the confidence and skills required in creating inclusive and supportive workplaces.
Programs such as these are becoming more urgent as we begin to see the effects the pandemic has had on women. As Johanna notes, although women have made gains in representation in senior leadership positions in the last 18 months, entry into the first stage of leadership is still predominantly accessible to men. This leaves an uncertain future for gender equality in the workplace.
Furthermore, when the situation is viewed through an intersectional lens of gender and race, women of colour lose out to white women and men at every level of advancement. As a society, this is something we need to be deeply concerned about. When there is a lack of diversity in boardrooms and business meetings, it will only lead to greater inequality and exclusion for marginalized populations.
The Woman Up! program is designed to be an inclusive experience, with a flexible schedule and interactive learning experiences. Johanna emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer coaching, which supports women in increasing their level of self-awareness regarding their strengths and blind spots. There is also an online social community to help participants build up a professional network of contacts and mentors from other members of the community.
By learning to advocate for themselves and others, Johanna hopes that the women who join the Woman Up! program will be the first wave in a new generation of thriving women who lead with courage and compassion, keeping equity and inclusion at the heart of their purpose.
According to Gallup, this type of leadership development works because it’s more than instructive, it’s transformative! It evolves mindsets and skillsets, teaching women explicitly how to look, think, and act like an authentic leader.
Source: Gallup – How to Win the “Great Resignation”