Bringing women into leadership is a common corporate goal today, but diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t easy, and sifting through the options to develop female leaders can be a project unto itself. In its five years, Castell Project has worked toward a goal of having women in more than one of every three positions at all levels of hospitality industry leadership and ownership, and has refined five pillars that support developing women leaders.

Underpinning the five pillars is the idea that there are things that women learn differently or better in the company of other women. Girls typically grow up learning different behaviors, particularly around interpersonal skills, than boys are taught. As a result, social norms are different for men than women and to reach their full potential as leaders, women need different training in these specific areas as adults.

For everything else, it is better for women to learn and compete together with men.

The five pillars of Castell’s leadership programs are described below:

The ability to project the confidence and decisiveness required to lead is shaped by emotional intelligence, image and interactions with others. Strong executive presence is a crucial aspect of a woman’s personal brand and provides personal fulfillment, promotion and the potential to reach personal and professional goals. Since women dress differently than men, have different body language, and have culturally developed reticence about taking a seat at the table and making presentations, these are skills women develop best with other women.

Negotiation skills establish strong relationships and deliver positive solutions, contributing significantly to success at work and at home. Sharpening these skills allows women to accomplish their goals and move up to more powerful leadership roles. Old-school negotiation that emphasizes winner-take-all or I-win-you-lose outcomes can add to a man’s image as strong, driven and can attract followers. However, the same approaches only damage a woman’s image as a leader and drive away supporters.

Women thrive when they negotiate in the circle of value — finding creative ways to satisfy shared and differing interests, bringing creative and useful solutions to the table. Trained to negotiate as women, these leaders deliver long-lasting beneficial outcomes.

An advocate is a supporter who believes in someone and puts their name on the table behind closed doors as well as in open discussion. Advocating for others and encouraging advocates for oneself are paramount to promoting women to leadership success. Advocacy has traditionally been built out of the “old boys’ network” where men comfortably advocate for younger men in the same way they were supported in their careers. This is a hurdle for women who may not be in the same places to make connections and do not remind senior men of themselves. Since they are approaching this social structure from a different social and structural place, women learn advocacy skills particularly well with other women.

Career planning starts with critical self-assessment and understanding values. Cultural norms typically encourage women to “do more and you’ll be recognized.” Women need to be taught to recognize and extricate themselves from this productivity trap. They also may not realize that higher goals are attainable unless they are shown how to see opportunity. Importantly, learning with other women how to orchestrate their own work-life symphony gives women the freedom and control to reach for their best career.

Successful women have a network that includes a close posse of women, usually in different companies, who share goals and aspirations. The posse provides an outside sounding board and support from like-minded women about pursuing higher-level careers. There was a time when professional women would undermine each other’s careers; now women learn to actively support each other. It’s been a deliberate change and is a learned skill. Women also need to be in networks with men, and learning the communication skills and body language to sustain those professional relationships comes from modeling other successful women.

We find that women progress well for the first few years of their career but plateau due to cultural and corporate expectations. For those who rise through this plateau, there is another plateau for women approaching senior leadership levels. Castell Project packages skills training in the five pillars with programming at these two levels — called BUILD and ELEVATE — specifically for women in the hospitality industry. Developing the five pillars, whether through Castell’s programming or other resources, encourages and enables women’s leadership trajectory.

Courtney O'Donnell is part of IHG’s development team and manages the vital support functions for the Regional Development Directors tasked with expanding IHG’s mainstream brands in the United States.

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