This page brings together essential insights into the reality of modern female leadership. You’ll discover what still holds many women back, how mentoring accelerates career progression, and how to step into a leadership identity with clarity, confidence, and resilience. If you’re navigating your own path—or guiding others—this is your strategic roadmap.

What is Women in Leadership Mentoring?

Women in Leadership Mentoring is a focused, structured support pathway designed to help women step into senior leadership roles with confidence. It’s not about fixing what’s broken—it’s about elevating what’s already exceptional. Through intentional guidance, mentoring helps unlock clarity, sharpen communication, and navigate political or cultural landscapes that can often be invisible until they’re in the way.

This type of mentoring empowers women to:

• Navigate bias and decision-making barriers
• Manage visibility and voice in executive settings
• Align personal values with organisational impact
• Build alliances and sponsor relationships

It’s strategic. It’s outcomes-driven. And when done well, it changes careers, organisations, and lives.

The Barriers Women Leaders Still Face

Despite decades of progress, women are still underrepresented in senior executive and board positions across the world. Common challenges include:

• Underestimation and invisibility
• Lack of senior sponsorship
• Misaligned leadership development programs
• Cultural or systemic resistance to female authority

Mentoring directly addresses these barriers by giving women the tools to:

• Claim space strategically and confidently
• Master high-stakes executive communication
• Develop adaptive leadership styles
• Avoid burnout while navigating high-pressure roles

The Mindset Shifts of High-Performing Female Executives

Top-tier women leaders don’t wait to be picked. They build strategic clarity and act with bold purpose.

Common mindset shifts include:

• Replacing “Do I belong here?” with “I know what I bring.”
• Moving from reactive to proactive influence
• Seeing leadership as a platform, not a position
• Knowing when to challenge norms and when to shift the game

Mentoring helps build these internal shifts through real-time conversation, thought partnership, and scenario practice. It transforms reactive responses into predictive influence.

Three Lessons from Groundbreaking Women Leaders

1. Sheryl Sandberg (Meta): Make your voice heard early, clearly, and repeatedly—especially in rooms where you’re the only one.
2. Gail Kelly (Former Westpac CEO): Don’t outsource your ambition. Define it. Own it. Lead from it.
3. Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo): Being a woman in leadership is not about blending in. It’s about showing what’s possible when you lead with clarity and care.

How to Succeed as a Woman in Leadership

Success isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about stepping fully into who you are—with strategy. Here’s how to grow into the leader you’re meant to be:

1. Identify your leadership edge: Understand the value you bring to every room.
2. Speak your strategy: Communicate with intention, influence, and authority.
3. Build strategic relationships: Find mentors, sponsors, allies.
4. Manage energy, not just time: Prioritise clarity and recovery.
5. Document wins and patterns: Data drives credibility and self-assurance.

Mentoring with Yvonne Cohen builds each of these elements from the inside out.

Best Books on Women in Leadership

• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
• How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
• Playing Big by Tara Mohr
• The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman

Explore more Women in Leadership insights and mentoring strategies [HERE]