Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers by Ibarra and Kolb - Article Example

Even with women being promoted to leadership positions, there are issues that materialize, such as identity shift. This occurs when practices and policies show the mismatch of how women are seen and the experiences and qualities people tend to associate with people in leadership positions. For instance, behavior perceived as assertive in a man is perceived as aggressive in a woman and hence denigrated instead of rewarding them. Therefore, one way to tackle this problem is to address what women can do to address mostly gender bias and perception on how to exhibit leadership behavior for promotion.

In one case in a Harvard Business Review article, Amanda was demanded to be present in all important meetings, and in that meeting, she exhibited competency over other colleagues, especially the male colleagues (Ibarra, Ely & Kolb, 2013). This showed that she could execute the organization’s goals and objectives. This gave Amanda credibility towards her peers and supervisors that made her a suitable candidate for promotion into the leadership position. Despite Amanda’s efforts, gender discrimination prevents women from occupying powerful positions.

Most men advocate and sponsor other men when there are leadership opportunities in a company. Therefore, women will need to exhibit more leadership characters at the workplace to improve their chances of promotion to leadership positions despite male dominance.