Strong female leader makes big difference

YOU are familiar, no doubt, with the Butterfly Effect – the notion that the smallest change could have the largest effect, that the simplest action can bring the greatest reward. It underpins every act of support and mentorship in the workplace.

If you're a woman in a position of leadership, influence or power, do you recognise the opportunity you have to create the kind of society we want to live in? Strong female leadership is good for morale as well as for a company's bottom line.

Betsy Ings is managing director of Tradelane Project Management. In 2008 she won the Social Entrepreneur category of the Businesswomen's Association's Regional Business Achievers Awards. In 2009, she won the national category.

Ings describes herself as a women entrepreneurship and community development specialist, project manager, skills development adviser and social entrepreneur. "Social enterprise is a lonely space to operate in. You are continually looking for opportunities to serve and improve circumstances in your chosen community."

Her greatest challenge, she says, was – and still is – to restore dignity to women, allowing them to become active economic citizens who can make an informed decision to better their own lives, and their families and the greater community.

If your actions are the flap of that butterfly's wings, do you bring the tornado, or do clear skies reign?

It takes real action to overcome the subtle, insidious and often invisible ways by which women may be marginalised in the workforce. Our own inaction could be part of the problem.

But we can be part of the solution. Small actions will move us forward.

The rate of change is slow: according to the World Economic Forum's 2013 Global Gender Gap Report, South Africa has a 25% economic participation and opportunity gap. We also have a gender pay gap of 35% – on average, we earn less for similar work.

Either we adapt to a broken system – South Africa's senior female leadership numbers have all but flatlined – or together we begin building workplaces that work for everybody. What could these strategies for success look like?

In business, when formal introductions of title do not take place, women are usually assumed to have a lower status than men on the same level. Examine your beliefs and assumptions. Open yourself up to other worldviews, educate yourself about others' experiences, recognise how class, gender and race intersect, and don't distrust your own experiences. We don't simply shrug off society's expectations at the office door – the different demands on men and women have real effects on professional interactions and performance.

Statistics don't change overnight. The rate of change in the US indicates it will take until 2085 for women to reach leadership parity with men. What are the small messages you are sending to your employees, peers and colleagues about your belief in their abilities and in your own?

A programme like the BWA's Virtual Board illustrates the value of mentorship to women in business. Matching participants with leading businessmen and women who counsel and develop skills puts women in contact with leaders they might not have had the opportunity to meet.

Wendy Luhabe also leads by example: she runs regular live chats on her website, engaging with young women to give them the benefit of her wisdom and experience.

You are only as strong as your network, and for women who may find themselves sometimes unwitting trailblazers in male-dominated fields, that network is doubly important.

Advocate for others. Give a hand up: write letters of recommendation for young women climbing the corporate ladder. Show new recruits what to do. Encourage younger members of your team. Give advice from your own experience. Listen and observe. And sometimes you need to cheer others from the sidelines.

Shared challenges have real and far- reaching effects on the professional and personal lives of women at all levels of the workforce. But the pendulum swings the other way, too, and positive changes in favour of women benefit society and the economy as a whole.

If you had the power to change someone's life for the better, would you? It only takes a small flap of the wing. Klokow is a member of the Businesswomen's Association of South Africa