Mean-girl tactics in leadership have got to STOP!
Some women in power, for whatever reason, seek to undermine and derail other women.
I’ve watched this dynamic play out recently in my own career and that of my clients.
The woman who tried to break my business
A while back, a woman tried to destroy my business. We had a 45min chat about our leadership businesses. Off that back of that, she decided that I’d “stolen” her IP and went running to a lawyer to threaten massive fines unless I agreed to never teach leadership again.
Never mind that:
a) I hadn’t learned anything new from her, and
b) the leadership concepts and teaching methods we talked about have been published in thousands of books and courses already.
And who can forget that a woman took the lead in demolishing pay equity claims in Aotearoa, some of which had been underway for over a decade.
That means hundreds of thousands of women who will experience, at best, a significant delay in getting financial justice, and at worst, who will NEVER see it during their careers.
Why mean-girl tactics suck
Mean-girl tactics—gaslighting, gossip, exclusion, sabotage—aren’t just vindictive; they’re poison for progress.
Yes, men can and do undermine each other, often more directly. It’s no less damaging for its directness.
But for women, already facing a stacked deck due to systemic barriers, mean-girl tactics are a double blow. As Madeleine Albright put it, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women”.
Let’s stop putting our feet on each other’s necks and instead lead with the values that underpin all great leadership, regardless of gender: honesty, transparency, kindness, and mutual empowerment.
Honest talk—have you seen this dynamic in the workplace? Have you ever caught yourself falling into these patterns? How do we break the cycle?
