Boss Lady

6 key tips for women to become stronger leaders

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I have always been inspired seeing women in leadership, determined to transform the world in arenas traditionally governed by men. The growth of social media and online collaboration has also given rise to more women having additional flexibility, finding their voice and using their entrepreneurial skills to make a greater mark in business.

We are experiencing exciting times in the business world as women are increasingly being recognised for our determination, strength, resilience, vision, innovation and human connection.

I have the privilege of being both a businesswoman and an educational leader, bringing feminine strength and wisdom to the classroom and the boardroom to create social impact that improves people’s lives. As women, it’s important that we support each other so I’ve outlined some tips to help you achieve this within your own business environment:

1. Creating a high impact team culture

The heart of a business is its people. To create a high impact team culture, I ensure my staff and I understand the business and its people holistically using the Human Literacy elements – Social, Physical, Intellectual, Cultural and Emotional. Through this process we learn to value our diversity, develop positive relationships, harness the strengths and talents of our team, and work in synergy to achieve our potential.

2. Listening with empathy and seeking to understand before making decisions

As a business woman, I strongly value others and am empathetic to their needs. This has led me to organically give our team members the space and time to share their story, listening to understand and asking questions to seek clarification. More effective decisions have been made through this process, where empathy surpasses judgement, and acting with compassion ensures the best outcome for everyone concerned. It also results in developing relationships and building trust both essential in creating a positive work climate.

3. Focusing on staff wellbeing

I consistently see our team thriving in our work environment and I believe this is due to our strong focus on staff wellbeing. We provide flexible work options, healthy lunches, mindfulness, motivational music, wellbeing days, brain breaks, social gatherings, walking meetings and a physical environment that is calming and therapeutic. This has resulted in happier team members, a greater focus on their work and higher productivity.

4. Fostering a growth mindset culture

Businesses face challenges. We continually foster a growth mindset in our business, where we build resilience, see failure as a new opportunity to improve and find new solutions we may not have originally considered. Our growth mindset culture supports us to thrive instead of survive. It also influences our conversations through the strength focused language we use and the positive intent we have in what we do. Our holistic approach allows us to understand how a growth mindset affects and is affected by our relationships, environment, wellbeing, beliefs, attitudes, emotions and skills, and we use this to improve our choices, thinking and work habits.

5. Developing KPIs that focus on people impact not profit

Our business is for-profit, however our KPIs are not based on profits. We changed this paradigm of business by focusing our KPIs on the number of people we impact through our work. We know the more people we can impact, the more we have improved our world. This gives depth to our business and a real purpose for being. It also relates strongly to being a B Corporation where we are the best we can be for the world – something we deeply value.

6. Harnessing social connections to develop synergy

A synergistic work environment takes us to a higher level of working collaboratively by recognising the impact we all have together rather than what we present individually. As a businesswoman, I have a natural strength in growing positive relationships through social connection. I know that supporting all of my staff to work collaboratively through regular conversations, planning as a team and organising our workload, allows us to achieve so much more together. This important social connection and sense of belonging as one team, ensures continued success in all we do.

About Georgina Pazzi

With over 29 years of rich experience in educational leadership, Georgina Pazzi, has a wealth of knowledge and experience across business and education, progressive pedagogies, having headed key government educational initiatives, developed successful learning, wellbeing and leadership programs, and consulted for the DEECD. Georgina is also an outstanding learning coach, working holistically with at risk students from preschool to Year 12 and their families.

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