Maddie, Tanya and Greta have never heard of the double bind. The trade off that women in leadership roles have to deal with where they have to balance competence with being likable. Maddie: Find your own purpose as a leader; who are you as a leader? How do you want to show up as aLeader? That will help you navigate that double bind.
Learning to lead other people is a stressful stretch assignment. Much of that stress stems from the misconceptions many people bring into the job. They think they know what the role will entail, and then they start doing the work and realize they don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into. Gender bias often makes the transition more painful for women since a lot of people, unfortunately, still don’t see us as cut out for leadership, even if they’d never say so to our face.
Three women who’ve recently moved into management speak candidly about being newly in charge of other people: the surprises, the rewards, and recent challenges. If you’re a new manager yourself, we hope you’ll find comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in any struggles you might be facing— and that you’ll get some ideas for how to deal. And if you’re just curious about becoming a boss, we hope that you’ll come away more prepared for the job and confident that you can do it too.
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