Empowering Women Leaders: 4 Essential Skills And 6 Mindset Questions

This week, I’m on my Grand European Tour – Frankfurt, London, Paris, and… Huddersfield (where my parents live). If you’re on social media, you might enjoy some highlights on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

I went to the gym the other day and saw 8 women there!!!

This is the most I’ve ever seen. It reminded me of a Sasuga! Podcast episode from 3 years ago: Where Are All The Women?

I talked about how the gym and the boardroom are so dominated by men – and it doesn’t have to be that way.

Despite the increase in the number of women at the gym (well, at least on that one day), the rest of the episode still seems relevant today, so I’m resharing the main points here.

The lack of women leaders in Japan is no secret.

And it’s a problem for many organizations both in terms of quotas they have to fill as well in the benefits of more female leadership that they’re missing out on. 

In my 3-decade experience of working in corporate Japan, I’ve seen two common barriers to women’s leadership: skills and mindset. And women have the power to start changing these themselves right now. 

Different people will give you different opinions on what are essential leadership skills. 

A quick online search produced multiple articles with titles like “What are the 5 leadership skills?” Or, 6, or 10, or 25 leadership skills. People can’t even agree on how many there are, never mind on what they are.

I like to keep it simple and powerful with just four.

4 Essential Leadership Skills

1. Care for you – You probably don’t hear this very often as a leadership skill and that’s exactly why so many women get burnt out and give up or don’t even attempt to move to a higher position
2. Create your plan – It’s important to have a clear vision, set goals toward that, and plan well in a way that works for you and your team to be able to stay focused on what has most impact 
3. Communicate your ideas – Make sure those around you are clear on your vision or your department or company’s vision and understand and are excited about their role in it
4. Complete your tasks – It’s vital that you can get the important things done in a way that maximizes your expertise, time, and energy

These are in fact the 4 phases of the Sasuga! Success Cycle, which can help you to intentionally build those skills and align them with your natural ups and downs due to your hormonal cycle and other factors unique to you.

But even before starting to build skills, you may not realize how much your mindset unnecessarily holds you back. That’s because your mindset seems so natural to you.

Without training or a coach or a trusted advisor or friend, it can be difficult to see how we’re limiting ourselves and what could actually be possible.

6 Questions To Challenge Your Mindset

1. What is your biggest concern or fear about advancing in your career?
2. Is that a fact or is it a belief or assumption?
3. Could this concern or fear actually be coming from your reptilian brain that wants to keep you safe?
4. What are you missing out on by attempting to stay safe?
5. How would you answer this question from a poem by Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” 
6. What will your life look like a year from now if you do nothing different?

You have the power to start overcoming both those barriers of skills and mindset right now.

If you’d like to listen to me talking about this topic, tune into Episode 118 of the Sasuga! Podcast.

The #LessEffortMoreImpact Movement for Women in Business is an uplifting community for growth-minded women in Japan and beyond to

• connect across industries and nationalities   
• embrace selfcare as a success strategy             
• encourage each other to step out of our comfort zones

so that we can do brilliant work, without sacrificing our personal lives.