Career Coaching For Women- Planning Now To Be A Leader Tomorrow
Now, more than ever, is the time for women to include strong leadership development in their career planning strategies. Women of the baby boomers era have opened many doors in upper management for the women of today. In the past, very few females were ever considered for board of directors positions within the Fortune 500 companies that make up corporate America. Those statistics are rapidly changing.
According to American Demographics, “Women are becoming visible at the top of corporate ladders, but remain few and far between. Female executives and male CEOs often agree about what helps women get ahead, but not about what holds them back. Senior-level women set priorities to achieve balance in their lives. Companies seeking to make the most of women’s talents should do the same.
Conditions have never been more favorable for women to ascend to leadership in all sectors of the U.S. economy. Women aged 45 to 54, of prime age to attain senior management positions, will account for more than one-third of all net additions to the nation’s work force between 1994 and 2005, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics projections.
Three factors drive this inexorable trend. First, the massive baby-boom generation will swell this age group during the next decade. Second, labor force participation rates among women aged 45 and older will rise as boomers replace a less well-educated, less career-oriented cohort of women. And third, men’s labor force participation at older ages will continue its long-term gradual decline. These demographic developments virtually ensure that utilizing female talent will continue to gain prominence as an issue for U.S. employers in the years ahead.
A pioneering generation of American women has already begun to attain top positions in the nation’s largest corporations. Although no Fortune 500 company boasts a female CEO today, Catalyst has documented substantial progress of women in big business in recent years. At the apex of corporate decision-making, women now hold about 10 percent of seats on boards of directors of Fortune 500 corporations, according to the 1995 Catalyst Census of Female Directors. Eighty-one percent of these companies had at least one woman on their boards last year, up from 69 percent just two years earlier. What’s more, companies are moving beyond the tokenism of a single female director; 165 of the Fortune 500 now have two or more women on their boards.”
If you are aspiring to advance to the upper echelon of corporate America, you need to map out your course of action early in your career to acquire the necessary skills in communication, leadership and achieving balance in your life. Career and life coaching is no longer solely for the rich and famous. It should be considered your source for ongoing, post-graduate education. Reaching your career goals will be much more easily attained when you have someone with experience guiding you through all of the important choices you must make on your way to the top.