| In this study, my purpose was to explore how female executive leaders conceptualize resilience in the context of their work lives and to uncover similarities across strategies that these women use in order to be resilient in their leadership roles. I interviewed 20 female executive leaders from 9 different industry sectors. The women responded to a semistructured interview of 6 open-ended questions that explored their experiences, in particular as their experiences related to past or current workplace challenges in their roles as female executive leaders. I used a thematic analysis approach to discover overarching themes in the transcribed interviews. The results revealed that women have a strong sense of who they are and what they value: they possess a high level of confidence, integrity, and authenticity and have the courage to take big risks, voice their opinions, and challenge the status quo. With respect to their social environment, these women are attuned to the emotions and needs of their colleagues, team members, and clients and are skilled at adjusting their actions and behaviours in accordance with what is most appropriate. Finally, these women have a strong determination to succeed in their leadership roles and view it as requisite to being a female leader in the business world. They are fiercely ambitious and do not let anyone or anything get in their way of achieving their goals. Due to the unique sample population, the study results cannot be generalized to the larger population from which the sample was drawn. However, the results may be used to inform future research on female leadership resilience and organizational practices and policies with respect to female executive leaders. Results found that all 4 emotional intelligence clusters (self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, social management) contributed to women's resilience in their leadership roles. Organizations would benefit from knowing how to develop and leverage these "soft skills" in women. Secondly, female leaders revealed that professional and personal support was important to their resilience, pointing to the criticality of providing women with mentoring, networking, and stretch assignment opportunities that allow female leaders to grow and be of value. Organizations need to value and promote the equal participation of women and men in decision-making. Organizations that are not committed to developing and retaining their top women will continue to experience increased attrition rates among female executive leaders. The present research study is important in that it appears to be the first qualitative study that examines how female executive leaders define resilience in the context of their work lives, and it is one of the few studies that focuses on strategies that promote resilience in female executive leaders. This represents an important progression in research with respect to female leadership studies. |
