Women in Leadership Research

In the American workforce, women cover close to 47% of the entire U. S. labor force. However, despite their attainment of higher education coupled with their population numbers, women in America are still lagging substantially behind their male counterparts when it comes to how they are represented in leadership positions. This can be observed in various sectors and industries in American where women representation in leadership positions are significantly low as compared to their male counterparts. The commonly used term to describe their plight in the workplace is the glass ceiling referring to the invisible barrier that various women face as they advance in their career towards leadership roles but are only able to achieve as much without reaching the upper echelon of their profession.

Despite the social and legal developments promoting inclusion of women in leadership roles, it is essential to note that a lot still needs to be done to ensure equality of women within the work. With this in mind, it is the objective of the current study to evaluate how women can focus on their leadership development to enable them to break the glass ceiling in leadership. Literature Review Given the limited representation of women in leadership roles, it becomes categorical that for them to break the glass ceiling, they have to practice effective development of their leadership skills. According to Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee (2014), leadership development can be argued to be the expansion of an individual’s capacity to perform various leadership functions within an organization.

Given that businesses today operate in a complex and challenging environment that overwhelms people and stifle business functions, leaders are instrumental in setting short-term goals to enable the workforce to realize small wins as they work towards the larger objectives. As such, to break ceiling in leadership, women in healthcare have to model the way for others to follow. This is particularly for women who have already made it into leadership positions. According to West, Eckert, Steward & Pasmore (2014), of the 37% of women forming the American medical workforce, only less than 16% are in leadership positions. Of the 16%, very few can be found in the upper echelon of management in various medical institutions. For women to make it into the upper echelon of management in the medical industry, it is essential that they inspire a vision and draw other into the dream to enable them to realize their objectives.

It goes without saying that one can only become a leader if he or she is leading people somewhere. Unfortunately, a significant number of people attain leadership positions without them having a sense of or knowing where they are going or taking people. This is particularly because such leaders lack the ability to inspire a shared vision. As such, for women to break the glass ceiling in leadership, they have to first be an inspiration and then secondly have a shared vision. Climbing up the ladder will call on all women to challenge the process and leverage any opportunity presented to them to change the status quo. In developing effective leaders challenging the process is one of the best practices for various reasons.

First, Clinton (2017) argues that challenging the process results in remarkable improvement as well as breakthroughs in processes and challenges. As such, people get to realize new ways of doing things and solving problems. Apart from achieving remarkable improvements as well as realizing various breakthroughs, women challenging the process as part of their leadership growth would also result in business growth. Mendoza, Orea-Amador & Kendall (2016) consider enabling others to act as a characteristic of a confident leader who has the understanding of the strength and weaknesses of his or her employees. Such leaders are known to understand the potential of their employees and are confident that their subjects can be in control of their behavior as well as take initiative in realizing the objective of the organization.

It is essential to note that enabling others to act is what separates leadership from management. In as much as in some cases leaders are forced to direct and control similar to management styles, the best attribute for leaders is to enable other act in their own will to achieve the firm's objectives. For women seeking leadership roles in various organizations, it is essential for them to develop their leadership skills in such a manner that they can help others realize their full potential and trust in them to take initiatives instrumental in realizing the objectives of the institution. It, therefore, becomes instrumental for women seeking to break the ceiling in leadership positions to encourage others to have the heart and will to achieve the organization's objectives.

This requires the leaders to develop a personal relationship with their followers and understand their strength as well as weaknesses in accomplishing their duties. It is essential to note that no one has ever achieved greatness by standing alone. As such, for women to break the glass ceiling in leadership, it is critical that they feel connected to others as well as ensure that other are feeling connected to them. Encouraging the heart is one of the techniques that they can utilize in creating such connections with their subjects. ABC-CLIO. Clinton, J. R.  The making of a leader: Recognizing the lessons and stages of leadership development. Two Words Publishing, LLC. E. , Sturm, R. E. , & McKee, R. A. , & Posner, B.  The leadership challenge.