Is Perfectionism Holding Women Back in Transportation Leadership Roles?
By Ellen Voie, President & CEO, Women In Trucking
A
uthor Ann Wilson Schaef calls perfectionism
“self-abuse of the highest order.” It could be a factor in why there are so few women in leadership roles in transportation.
Although it has become more common for companies to promote women into management areas, there is still work to be done to increase the percentage in transportation. For most industries, women comprise over half of senior leaders, but in the trucking industry, we’re at about fourteen percent today.
Sure, trucking has traditionally been a male dominated area, but so were other occupations such as law and medicine that have tilted the numbers into more positive ones for women.
Maybe there are some things we can point to right now that will help us bring more women, and untapped potential, into the trucking industry.
First, be aware that women are less likely to even apply for a higher position, as research by Hewlett Packard
found that women feel they must have 100 percent of the job requirements before they will apply. For men, they’ll go for the role if they meet sixty percent of the stated requirements.
Also, research by Babcock and Laschever found that women do not negotiate their salaries, and accept whatever is offered. To add to this dilemma, a 2011 McKinsey report found that women are often promoted based on their accomplishments, while men are promoted for their potential.
Add all this to a traditionally male dominated industry and you’ve got a mixture of women with less confidence in their abilities and a culture that’s not always sensitive to these issues.
Women are typically more prone to perfectionism as learned in childhood. We are the people pleasers who spend more time interacting verbally and focusing on collaboration than our brothers. We are the caregivers. We learned that it’s not nice to brag about our accomplishments and as the minority in this industry, we are aware that we are representing women who will come along behind us once we’ve blazed a trail for them.
So, how does
perfectionism harm our careers? Kathy Caprino, a success coach and author, cites five ways this need to be perfect is detrimental to our careers:
1. You’re difficult to be with as your need to be perfect alienates your co-workers.
2. You hurt people with your critical and judgmental thinking.
3. It taints your ability to manage people, as your standard of perfect is what you strive for.
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