Think Women’s 40 Outstanding Global Women 2023 - Jenny Hinde, The Clear Company
As part of our Think Women Outstanding Global Women profile series, we chatted to Jenny Hinde, Executive Director at The Clear Company, a UK-based diversity and inclusion firm that focuses on inclusive recruitment and talent management. Jenny is passionate about promoting equality for women, and gives a fascinating insight into what makes an excellent, impactful leader. She is one of the inspiring leaders we are shouting about for International Women’s Day 2023.
What makes a good leader?
Jenny believes every leader is unique and there is no one way of leading a team. However, there are key outcomes of leadership that are universally desirable, regardless of style or gender and these include:- Creating psychological safety for teams, so that they feel valued for their contributions
- Role modelling inclusive behaviours and demonstrating to your team what you expect in terms of those inclusive behaviours
- Empathy when leading teams, whatever the sector your industry is in
Is there a male versus female leadership style?
Jenny says that the challenge many organisations face is that their board and leadership team have become homogenous over time. A board dominated by men tends to make decisions in a certain way.“Typically, those homogenous teams are male dominated with a certain style of leadership,” she says. “If this is the case, then you're not embracing difference, you're not bringing in different voices, and you are shying away from anything outside a narrow zone of operation.”She cites studies which show that bringing women into leadership roles can create improvements, both in financial and non-financial terms, for example in improving health and safety outcomes.“The evidence is there that teams perform better, not just financially but in other ways. However, women in leadership still have a massive mountain to climb in terms of achieving equality from a leadership perspective.”She believes that millennials are and will continue to change the working environment, pushing for a more inclusive culture and eschewing the 70-hour working week that previous generations considered necessary to ensure promotion to leadership positions.While working women face systemic barriers in society around access to childcare, shared parental leave and caring responsibility, Jenny suggests that encouraging men to embrace flexible working could be an approach that benefits families.Jenny Hinde’s Tips for women leaders
- Keep a record of your successes and positive feedback. You can refer to it in appraisals and use it to remind yourself of your value if you are not feeling confident
- You can be a really impactful and strong leader and still be inclusive. You need strength to be inclusive.
- Be courageous around your personal leadership style.
- Build your evidence base. It used to be you were told to Build your Brand but gathering evidence of your value is better
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