A month ago I wrote about girls fearing to lead due to a conversation we had online (twitter) with a few of my followers. This was connected to the Girl Rising day where a few girls attendant yet the event was meant for them. Read more about my first thought about this leadership topic here and the continuation now.

If girls don’t fear to lead why are their few in positions that are meant to be theirs? Have the campaigns meant to empower girls become so main stream that they are no longer product full? Or is it that girls were born to be second, to follow, and to be subordinates to men who take leadership as a persona?

It should be known that this leadership question doesn’t only fall in the technology space where this leadership question has been emphasized more, no! It is happening in all the other spaces mainly the ones which were thought to be women orientated like Fashion and style, catering, writing, parenting, etc.

So when the discussion left the timeline to an actual event (#BarCamp) it was discovered that girls don’t fear to lead. Girls lead but not in the same way the world knows. And because the world doesn’t understand how the girls lead, they are thought to be doing none thing in this leadership space.

Women are leading in their own way because they don’t understand; see the relevancy and applicability of some of the existing leadership methods, tools and skills. So as women we have created our own way of leading away from the norm. We have built our own leadership systems that work for us and help us be no way but everywhere.

Girls who lead can’t be associated with none clear and guided transition processes which tend to be in most groups aimed to attract them. These girls have no time to waste on none productive things due to lack of time as the biological clock times out and marriage, motherhood start to creep on them; none straight roles and leadership opportunities need to be straight to the point and accurate.

Most girls are leaders but not in the notion of hard/difficult things/work being for men where they are mostly judged as not leaders. Examples like innovative space, there’s a great need to teach girls how to develop their personalities and enhance individual development for them to lead in this male dominated space. Sometimes it’s okay to tell the girls that they don’t have to be developers but asking ‘What is your passion and goals and are you following them?’ is the best direction to go.

To keep the girls leading, there were these few take homes from the #BarCamp that look to be tech orientated but actually work for all sectors where girls can be leader;

  • Girls need study groups that can motivate them and grow so that they can make informed synergies. Girls get more motivated to work amongst fellow girls.
  • There are leadership spaces like the technology one that requires consistency and persistence, energy and thought
  • Break the trends of culture, where the difficult tasks are reserved for the men.
  • There is need for individual development for ladies so that they can understand what makes them tick.
  • Girls need support from the community not stereotyped when they try to do difficult tasks.
  • Girls need to be honest with themselves about their goals and interests.
  • Women need to learn how to work for concrete outcomes with fewer expectations from others.
  • Current education system is more theoretical than practical, it’s best to work beyond that. Students are only motivated to finish school and look for jobs, which is absurd.
  • Inspire young children at all levels of life and expose them to various activities. Some families we come from wrongly set boundaries for children as they grow for example boys are given toy cars while ladies are given dolls.

women lead

Patricia Kahill

Patricia Kahill is a multipotentialite Christian entrepreneur, Content Marketing Coach and founder of the Content Marketing agency, Kahill Insights that helps business owners create engaging and interactive content items for digital platforms with a focus on returning a desired outcome. Patricia was the producer of SlamDunk Basketball Talk a show on House of Talent online TV, a former fellow at Harvest Institute for leadership and now an assessor there, and an alumnus of the YELP class of 2017. A member of the BNI Integrity chapter and African Women Entrepreneur Cooperative. She is driven by passion and curiosity, been taking every opportunity that has been given to her with an ambition of stamping her footprint on the world.

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