Women Leaders Development Program

Coaching

There Is Still A Long Way To Go In Terms of Women's Participation In The Economy

Gender equality is a subject that needs development in the world and in our country. The United Nations Global Gender Inequality survey evaluates the opportunities and participation in life for women and men in 4 main categories. These categories are 'health and survival', 'access to education', 'participation in economic activity' and 'politics'. According to the 2024 survey results, the global gender inequality score for all categories combined is 68.5% (representing 100% equality). In more detail, while access to education and health services is almost equal between men and women, there is still a long way to go in the categories of economic and political participation. Turkey ranks 127th out of 146 countries surveyed. Turkey ranks 99th in the Access to Education index, 100th in the Health and Survival index, 118th in Participation in Politics and 133rd in the Participation in Economic Activity index. If we look at the issue of participation in the economy in more detail, according to TurkStat results, while men's participation in employment in Turkey is 70%, this rate is 33% for women.

Women's Presence Declines as Move Up the Management Hierarchy

In Turkiye, the rate of women working in middle and senior management positions is 19.6% (TurkStat). The rate of senior managers is 12% (UN Women Report).The share of women board members is 18,7% out of 517 companies registered in BIST. We can predict that if family members are excluded, it is around 10%.

In short, in an environment where women's participation in the economy is less than half of men's, women's access to managerial positions and promotion to management levels are needed for further development. It is not possible to explain this situation by women's low competence to promote to management levels or their unwillingness to do so. However, it is possible to say that women's social burdens, unconscious prejudices in the business world and women's prejudices about themselves, affect the result.The obstacles and glass ceilings that women encounter in their careers may have different characters and reasons. However, it is possible to reduce these negative factors and completely eliminate some of them. They need to notice and create their own solutions to overcome them.

Diversity in Workplaces Contributes to Company Performance and Society

The professional and economic empowerment of women is crucial for a stronger society and country. I believe, and many studies confirm, that balanced employment of women in the workplace and an increase in the number of women in senior management positions, on executive boards serve gender equality and cognitive diversity; while these are equally important for the performance of companies.

Women Leaders Development Program Supports Women on the Path to Career Success and Advancement

I have been addressing this issue for some time and I hope to see more women in senior management positions. I created this program by combining my 30-year career, the last 16 of which I spent as a C-Level Executive in automotive sector, with the coaching trainings I received from Erickson International Coaching School. My goal is to support women who want to advance in their careers through coaching and mentoring.

The Women Leaders Development Program consists of the processes where the disciplines of mentoring and coaching are applied independently and in an integrated manner, in line with the person's life purpose and career goals. This program, which serves the person's ideals of happiness and success, aims to strengthen leadership and achieve positive and permanent transformations in behavior.

Coaching is a tool that supports people to reach the results they want to achieve in different areas of their business and private life, and also to develop and live with awareness. Coaching is basically change management. It is adapting to change.

People in the 21st century are exposed to a lot of information and there are many topics that are of interest and attention. In order to be able to do and manage so many things, they have time limited to 24 hours. Today's people try to do more than one thing together and in a balanced way within this intense time compression. However, it is not enough on its own to think in a focused way and reach a right result in the face of so much stimuli.

From this perspective, coaching is a professional process that enables people to realize themselves in many different areas by providing strong focus within a certain period of time, to choose the path they want to walk with awareness, to support them to take steps with determination on the path they choose and to reach the place they want.

Mentoring

The mentor, based from the path he/she has walked before; shares his/her experience and knowledge with the person who will walk that path. Mentoring provides training, guidance. The mentor is a role model and supports the mentee in creating his/her own path and methods in that field.

In mentoring, the relationship is situationally equal or hierarchical and within mutual responsibility. Responsibility is shared 50% 50%, both in the person receiving the mentorship and in the mentor. Mentoring is done in consultancy with the coaching approach, but coaching is a separate professional process with different methods, processes and approaches.

Source: Erickson Coaching School – Denge Merkezi