Being in power as a woman doesn’t make you powerful

It’s a simple fact, being in power as a woman doesn’t make you powerful.

You are just in power.

How you use that power makes you powerful – or not.

Let’s be clear. I’m first in line to celebrate you going places, but sometimes, just sometimes, I swallow hard on women taking that noun literally. Power doesn’t mean an iron fist.

Power doesn’t mean grinding men in a nut cracker. Power doesn’t mean people must suffer for a business bottom line.

Power doesn’t mean you, and you alone, rule. Power does mean listening to others. Power does mean understanding that people are just that, human and fallible humans at that.

Power does mean trust. Trust the team you have worked so hard to build up. Trust their opinions because they, like you, also care about the bottom line. It’s their jobs at stake, after all.

And if you really, really listen, sometimes change your mind and let logic prevail because, yes, your team may have good ideas you never thought of.

Foster those ideas and cherish and protect your people because without them you truly have no business. That makes you powerful. That I can celebrate.

Forget that power suit, let the unique you speak through yourdress sense. And it’s not a weakness to show your softer side. You are, after all, a woman, known as the gatherer, the carer.

But soft as you are, no tears in the boardroom, please – that’s a step too far.

Does this sound like sour grapes just because I, as a woman, chose on my career path to not be in power? Not at all. I have worked under strong, phenomenal women.

In fact, the one I answer to is not simply in power, she’s powerful. She’ll walk that extra mile just to show you she cares, like when I eyed a stunning oil painting and found an additional sum in my account “to cover its price”,
she stated simply.

Her message is powerful to each and every one who works for her: “I have your back.”

And that’s why I will walk that extra mile and have her back. So be powerfully in power and I will celebrate you – not only this Women’s Month, every single day.