Marderé Birkill
Leadership, A Woman’s Natural Place
CEO & Principal Consultant
I had the great fortune of growing up in an environment where women
had the same opportunities as men. I was surrounded by trailblazing
women – an aunt (the first female judge in South Africa), accomplished
authors, inspired musicians, determined politicians and acclaimed medical
practitioners. Later in life I was surprised that women in leadership was still
an issue.
It was a perturbing reality that women in leadership roles continue to face challenges. After
coaching dozens of women leaders over the years, I found the most common challenges are:
maintaining balance, feeling overwhelmed, and labelling.
Oftentimes women juggle a career and family and we take care of ourselves last. This may lead
to a lack of balance, and a feeling of being overwhelmed. When coaching women leaders, we
work on overwhelm to find ways to develop balance from the very beginning of engagement.
Another huge area of my coaching practice is dealing with labelling. Whether it is factual or
perceived, many women leaders experience labelling in their daily work. Often it is difficult
to determine whether this labelling comes from ourselves or from others. In business, for a
woman, being assertive translates to being aggressive, friendly becomes flirty, sticking to the
business becomes bossy and unapproachable, collaborative means weak.
In my own journey, I faced many of these labels. Some of them were real and others perceived.
Through that, however, I developed a firm resolve to be authentic since I can only be me!
Authenticity and reliability eventually earned me respect from my peers, clients and myself.
The labelling subsided or simply didn’t matter anymore.
In my past leadership roles, my biggest personal challenge was to maintain balance in my life
and to prevent myself from feeling overwhelmed. I learned to make time for the important
things in life. I held myself accountable for staying grounded and focused on what matters
most: to be an inspiring and innovative leader.
It wasn’t always easy to remain grounded and authentic, but my own leadership coach taught
me to journal regularly which helped keep me accountable. To this day I debrief daily on what
worked and what didn’t work, to learn and grow from my own experiences. As a Leadership
Coach, and Operations and HR Consultant, growing daily is imperative to what I do. I model
what I preach.
I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It
means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading. -Amy Poehler
CEO & Principal Consultant
MARDERÉ BIRKILL , BA, MBL, CEC
Sage & Summit Consulting
Phone 780-404-7610
www.sage-summit.ca
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