WACL’s ambition is for 50% of all leaders in our industry to be women, right up to CEO. Our “Levers for Change'' series for the Female Leaders' Club helps drive systemic change not just at the top, but at all levels, fostering a more inclusive and empowering landscape for all. 

After a bold and disruptive MAD//Fest and insightful Female Leaders' Club Stage this month, it is now a pivotal time to revisit the five levers that can accelerate us towards a future where women hold half of all leadership positions.

It’s always been very interesting to me that the notion of ‘good’ leadership still conjures up words like ‘strong’, ‘direct’ and ‘competitive’, perpetuating a (hopefully unintentional) bias towards an undoubtedly male persona.

I’m all for spinning this on its head and changing the language of leadership altogether. ‘Honesty’, ‘collaboration' and ‘empathy’ are words (and actions) that have been proven to have a far greater resonance and power. For me ‘winning’ together is the ultimate goal.

Promoting for potential is vital. Whilst our ambition is for 50% female CEO’s this is absolutely not about overlooking male talent. This is not a ‘them and us’ situation. Identifying and nurturing women’s potential as leaders as well as men is key to bridging the experience gap and creating most effective leadership teams.

Sadly, the research highlights that women are still regularly overlooked for leadership positions. For instance, being a mum can hold you back in a way that simply doesn’t apply to working dads, and that’s not ok. We should focus on women’s potential, not reinforce barriers they’ve already experienced. Why is that glass ceiling and glass cliff still in place? It benefits business to change this, so we should all be queuing up with our hammers.

Our third lever is Work Like The World is Watching - creating workplace cultures where women can really thrive, and ensuring we’re properly representing all the women who make up our consumers and audiences too. But we’re not there yet. Here’s a scary stat - only 6% of CEO’s in the FTSE 350 are women. And this has only increased by 2% since 2017. Unconscious bias is still a powerful force, and we need to take active steps to recognise it, and learn from other people’s experiences. Encourage your teams to lean in, listen and learn.

I want to hear from the quiet ones, bring them into the room and listen carefully - they definitely have something to say. Be an ally even if no-one is watching.

Being a woman’s health hero is our fourth lever. Every company needs robust policies that start conversations and overcome barriers from periods to pregnancy loss, maternity to menopause. Too many women leave their job because they’re not given support that could have made a difference.

Simply put, companies need to do better - losing incredible women is a loss for both them and your company. Women make up 50% of the world’s highest education graduates but only 25% of management positions.

Our Flexible First lever makes flexible working the norm. Does it matter if the great work is done at the office or in your living room? Surely the ‘great work’ is the key output and the pandemic showed us that it can certainly work.

Offering flexible working allows more women to enter and stay in the workplace, and it can be a key motivator for productivity, which brings much-needed commercial benefits too.

Even if we double the current rate of change, we won’t get to 50% of CEO’s being women until 2045. We don’t want to wait that long, and we’re sure you don’t either. 

Download WACL’s 50% CEO’s Playbook.

Want to join in on the conversation? Get in touch with aoife@madfestlondon.com to share your experience, opinion and ideas for the future of female leadership in our industry.