Embrace Your Girl Power at the Office

Let’s face it, women are superhuman beings, they have to deal with a lot of challenges and usually all at once.
Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen is long gone and working moms are a reality now.
But it is not like all the other responsibilities just disappear when women start working. “O no, on the contrary, the working part just gets added onto the long list of responsibilities women are faced with on a daily basis.
What is even worse is that women get judged very harshly when they drop the ball,” explains Elmarie Pretorius, Managing Woman Owner at The Mindspa Institute, a soft skills training development company.
“At work, management might constantly be questioning their dedication and ability; while at home they themselves doubt their effectiveness as a parent or as a partner” she continued.
3 Steps Women Can Take To Develop Their Superpowers in Business
Be it as it may, women are amazing beings. They have the ability to juggle tasks, build communities, are highly emotionally intelligent and are able to put someone else’s needs in front of their own. 
To further develop these skills take a look at these 3 steps:
1. Embrace your own true self with Confidence
Be who you are and don’t apologise for it. The famous phrase ‘people do business with people’ is so true. Authenticity builds communities and relationships. These networks and conversations make others feel comfortable enough to reveal their true self.
Sad to say but most businesswomen, in particular, don’t feel confident enough to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.
They are afraid that if they don’t act in a certain way, they will be judged as being too ‘soft’ or not dynamic enough. This might be a reason why many women in business experience that they don’t have the confidence to ask for what they want and also receive what they deserve. Embracing your own true self means that you love yourself and you are not afraid to share yourself with confidence.
2. Feminise Your Leadership
Too often Female Business Leaders feel pressured in the workplace to avoid appearing either too emotional or too emotionless to lead.
More so, they are afraid to embrace their femininity or even combine their masculine and feminine traits. However, to “feminise your leadership style”, will emphasise the need for cooperation over competition among your co-workers. A more feminised leadership style in business will create a more people-centred behavioural approach which will focus on more networking and relationship building.
3. Use Your EQ to Your Advantage
“Leave your emotions at the door when you enter the boardroom,” is a phrase many women in the workplace have heard. However, many studies have shown that women tend to be more emotionally intelligent than their male counterparts.
The secret to using your EQ to your advantage is to learn to adequately identify and manage your own emotions by becoming self-aware and build the trust of your co-workers by picking up on their emotions and managing them with empathy. EQ is one of the soft skills, that if developed properly can be used to build businesses.
Top Women Executives revealed that once they improved their emotional competency they enlarged their ability to cope better with stress brought on by pressure; built trust to create deep meaningful relationships; negotiated with and influenced others positively and finally, were able to take well calculated and smarter risks. 
Women in Business, either in the workplace or as an entrepreneur, are very often less ego-driven than men which makes them more capable to perceive constructive feedback as an opportunity to change or improve a situation, their team or service or product.
Women are extremely versatile, not afraid to learn new things even from their male mentors, and eager to develop their skills. They are persistent and adapt easier to different groups, or roles and within their communication interactions.
But for some odd reason, many females still doubt themselves and their abilities. Many businesses and industries still focus on the disadvantages of a gender-diverse workforce.
It’s time to turn the spotlight onto women’s superpowers and what they can bring to the ‘boardroom table,’ so to speak.
*The Mindspa Institute has a course called Essential Business Skills for South African Women which is an interactive training course aimed at female business professionals, who want to grow their business skills, build their leadership capabilities and improve their communication, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, delegation and action-planning skills. All courses are offered on a remote training platform or in-house. Contact 010 110 0226 or email [email protected] for more information on how to invest in yourself and the women of your business.