Today’s podcast is a bit special - and I have to say it was a bit nerve-racking - as we talk about the challenges, barriers and opportunities for women in leadership with executive coach and strategy consultant Alex Oliver who – full disclosure – is also my wife.

Alex works with a range of people – women and men - across a multitude of sectors helping all these leaders to, as she puts it, “unleash your potential, power your growth and open up a fulfilling and purposeful life”. 

It is powerful and really important stuff. Understanding what it takes to be a good and effective leader in business is not something that necessarily comes naturally and almost certainly improves with training and personal awareness. 

To be honest, I have been looking for an excuse to interview Alex on the podcast for a while so the launch last week of She Leads; Step Into Your Value, her new women’s leadership programme seemed a fantastic opportunity to peer around the door of her office – not least as it coincided with the Association of Consultancy and Engineering’s own Female Leadership conference this week.

A recent Major Projects Association report on wellbeing highlighted the critical leadership challenges facing the modern infrastructure sector which traditionally has relied on a command and control, top down leadership styles. The reality is that boosting and promoting new, more empathetic leadership skills is an issue which the infrastructure sector is only really just starting to cotton onto.

But for women in particular, the challenges of leadership are acute, stemming from the continuing lack of gender diversity in the sector, exacerbated by traditional leadership cultures, and underpinned by a failure to appreciate a rake of specific blockers and barriers faced by women in infrastructure.

In short, for a sector which needs every ounce of talent, this failure to support and develop the next generation of female leaders remains a glaring missed opportunity.

So what to do? Well let’s find out and get some advice from the expert.

Resources
She Leads; Step into Your Value
Alex Oliver Consulting website
ACE - Engineering Futures: Removing the Barriers to Female Leadership
ICE Connect - Women in Fellowship