The Key to Helping Women Thrive That Many Organizations Are Ignoring

As a leader, you play a key role in your staff’s ability to thrive. In our spring 2023 research survey, we wanted to find out more about how women experience thriving and what managers and organizations can do to support thriving. Read on for our top findings!

Why Thriving Is Important

We asked respondents how they feel and what the impact is when they feel like they are thriving at work. Here’s what they told us:

• Women who are thriving feel more confident, more engaged, and happier. They also report feeling more inspired and feeling better about themselves.
• When they are thriving, respondents are more productive and more likely to go “above and beyond.” They also report being more effective and more able to do their best work.

Top Tips for Leaders

The good news is that a few key actions can have a big impact on your team members’ ability to thrive. Based on our findings, we recommend that leaders:

1. Provide opportunities for meaningful work. Helping employees feel accomplished and like they are contributing and having impact is the most important way to boost thriving.
2. Provide opportunities for learning and development. These don’t have to be formal or expensive; on-the-job learning is also valued.
3. Ensure employees feel valued and recognized. Understanding how individuals like to be recognized, and ensuring they know they and their work are valued is critical for thriving.

You’ll find much more information and additional tools in our report, Thriving at Work.

Thriving at Work in the News

• Susan outlines the steps steps leaders and organizations can take to create a new paradigm that will help shift society’s attitude towards women in the workplace. Read the article on Big Think.
• Forbes highlights strategies recommended in the Institute’s Thriving at Work Study that leaders can take to help people thrive. Read the article.
• Susan MacKenty Brady and Elisa van Dam challenge the notion that the #lazygirljob trend empowers women in an interview with Forbes.
• Elisa van Dam, co-author of the Thriving at Work report, offered tips on how to take control of one’s workload in an interview with Stylist.com. Read the article.
• Susan and Elisa discuss the Thriving at Work study and weigh in on how managers can help women thrive in a conversation with Bizwomen.