Bronwen Sciortino Of sheIQ Life On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Provide pathways for women to obtain the skills, education and experience they need to seamlessly step into leadership positions.
Despite strides towards equality, women remain underrepresented in leadership and management roles across various sectors. In this series, we would like to discuss the barriers to female advancement in these areas and explore actionable strategies for change. We are talking with accomplished women leaders, executives, and pioneers who have navigated these challenges successfully, to hear their experiences, tactics, and advice to inspire and guide the next generation of women toward achieving their full potential in leadership and management roles. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Bronwen Sciortino.
Bronwen Sciortino is an internationally renowned Author, Simplicity Expert and Professional Speaker who spent almost two decades as an award-winning executive before experiencing a life-changing event that forced her to stop and ask the question: “What if there’s a better way to live?”
Bronwen spends everyday teaching people there’s another way to live so they can tailor-make the life that allows them to be healthy, happy AND highly successful.
With her books and programs receiving international critical acclaim and 5-star reviews, Bronwen is sought as a media expert globally.
She works with people internationally through corporate programs, conference platforms, retreats, professional mentoring and in the online environment. She shares her secrets to success and inspires individuals to simplify their lives and embrace the concept of an economy of enough.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
When I finished my university course, I was lost and didn’t really know what I wanted to do next. I fell into a career in the financial services industry and before I knew it, I had spent almost two decades pushing myself to the extreme, putting way too much pressure on myself … until I eventually broke and found myself in the depths of a total breakdown.
These days, people talk a lot about stress, burnout, and excessive weariness. The health and wellness industry, like that of mindfulness and resilience, has a huge sector dedicated to educating people how to avoid these bad effects.
I battled my way through each of these events that I went through. I knew that I was sick, that something wasn’t right.
But I kept going anyway.
Then everything in my life collapsed one day. In less than sixty seconds, I changed from being an award-winning CEO to being on the ground, incapable of performing everyday activities, and unable to stop crying.
This happened following surgery to remove a tumour from my temple. When I first saw the wound, I was so astonished to see myself in the mirror that it knocked me out of this world and into another one where nothing would ever be the same.
I had to fight really hard for two years to get back to a place where I could exist in the basics of life. It took me another year of this effort to be able to stand securely in the bright, connected, and simple life that I love now.
These days, I spend my entire time teaching people, wherever they may be in the world, how to create the life they want for themselves.
Every working minute is dedicated to showing everyone that creating a successful, happy, and healthy life is a simple and easily ‘doable’ process.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the most interesting things that has happened to me since I started working in health and wellness is definitely letting my intuitive abilities grow.
We are raised to believe that everything that is even somewhat ambiguous is wrong, should be avoided, or both!
I saw that as I overcame my breakdown and started to reconstruct and rebuild who I AM. I noticed that I was gravitating more and more towards comprehending my intuition — what it is, how deep it is, and how I can use it to my advantage and the benefit of others.
I gave up trying to control it, to shrink it, to get rid of it. Instead, I allowed it to enter my life on a regular basis. To my surprise, I found that it was really beneficial, and that the more latitude I gave it, the more timely the information it supplied.
It’s fascinating to observe that I now use my intuition to compose almost all of my books, articles, and program content. When I work with a group of people, I am essentially given the information and questions I need to ask and I can tailor the presentation to the needs of the people in front of me in real time.
Now that I’ve given this side of myself a voice, I can play my part in the world with much more strength. I no longer hesitate to use my special talent to assist people make significant life changes; rather, I use it to set myself apart from the crowd. This shows that every day, I am actively and deliberately pursuing my life’s goal.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that significantly influenced your path to leadership?
One of the most pivotal moments in my leadership development was in realising that there is no good or bad experience in life. In its simplest form, everything is an experience that shapes us in the way we let it. Mindset is everything and when you take the good and the bad labels away, there are simply situations, places, people and things that teach us in the moment.
How — and the way in which we receive the lessons — is completely up to us.
Realising this gave me the freedom to allow the world to spin, but I don’t get thrown around with the chaos that comes from that. People will always be people. They will come with their ‘stuff’, their opinions, their experiences and their filters. All of those things are different to mine, and that means that their interaction with the world will be different to my experience of the same situation.
Leaving others to experience their challenges, their highs and their lows in the way that is perfect for them is one of the most freeing things you can do. You’re no longer expending enormous amounts of energy trying to force others to think and see the same way you do; you’re simply acknowledging that how they want to experience things is none of your business.
When you do this, you walk through life in a simpler way. You’re more connected to the things that are important for you and less worried about trying to impose your way on to others.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My life is full of people who have a significant influence on my life. My husband Jon is without a doubt the one for whom I am most grateful.
He got me through the storm when my life broke apart. He too suffered from the fallout, even though I was the one who had the breakdown. He went from having an independent, highly busy wife to having a completely dependent, terminally ill person to care for.
While a carer is not nearly as lucky as I was, and so Jon was mainly left to navigate the minefield on his own, I was able to rehabilitate with the support of many services.
Despite that, he was there for me. He granted me the liberty to undertake the necessary activities to transform into the “new me” moving forward. He was never a crank. In no way did he make it about himself.
Mostly though, he told me over and over again that he loved me and would support me no matter what. Being able to get that level of unconditional support during the worst time in my life has been one of my biggest blessings. I will always be grateful to him.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m a voracious reader and have read a wide range of books on a diverse variety of subjects over the years. There are a tonne of books that have motivated, inspired, and affected me in many ways. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson’s “Mistakes were made (but not by me)” is one of my favourite books and one that I reference often.
This book does a great job of showing how humans make mistakes, whether they are intentional or not. It discusses how we change our reality and present it to others, as well as how we can fool ourselves by applying the same standards of evaluation to other people’s actions while ignoring or rationalising our own.
I adore anything that allows you to view things from an alternative perspective or from a different position altogether and this book delivers that on so many occasions.
Because you can better understand how the behaviour might have occurred, it helps you think differently, comprehend how your mind deceives you, and be able to see behaviour — both of yourself and others — through fresh eyes and a modicum of empathy.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
‘You’ve discovered a wellspring, simply allow it to flow and it will fill your world. Don’t try to keep a safe distance so as to see what happens. Don’t wait to be certain before you take a step. What you give, you will receive, although it
might sometimes come from the place you least expect.’
(Paul Coelho)
We place a great deal of weight on helping people and checking on them throughout our lives. We see glimpses of the things that are meant for us, the things we can strive for or those we currently need.
However, how frequently do we postpone those tasks to a more suitable moment in the future? Even if we know how important it is to help others, we hesitate a long time to give in to our needs. When someone else is making the first steps towards realising their aspirations, it’s so simple for us to encourage and support them, but when do we give ourselves the same encouragement and support?
I adore this saying because it serves as a wonderful reminder of what awaits us when we take charge of our lives and truly engage in them. Alternatively, we can walk fearlessly to our own wellspring and let it fill our own universe, or we might let the needs and expectations of others divert us.
We are faced with this decision every day. Making decisions that are true to who we are and appropriate for us is much simpler when we become aware of our choices.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
There’s a very different way to live — one where stress and exhaustion don’t exist and we have a load of clarity about who we are and what will work for us in our lives. I spend every day teaching people simple, efficient and effective ways that they can turn their back on stress and create the life that is perfect for them.
My company has always been set up as a ‘not only for profit’ organisation. That means that I am always looking for the ‘win-win’ of a situation before I will step into any project, partnership or client situation. I’m not interested in a dollar for a dollar’s sake; I’m interested in a mutual exchange that benefits everyone.
A large part of who I am is geared to being of service — whether that is within my working relationships, projects, partnerships or beyond the borders of my business in voluntary time, charitable donations and the like. I am always looking at what I am doing and evaluating the ways in which it aligns with my purpose, goals and who I AM.
I truly believe that when we teach people to re-personalise their life and establish effective systems that build happiness that collectively the whole world thrives.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this report, only about 31.7% of top executive positions across industries are held by women. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from leadership and management?
There is a long and varied list of things that hold women back from stepping into leadership and management, and it varies depending on the personal circumstances of each woman. Everything from male-dominated industries to family commitments to access to education to female supportive work cultures to personal confidence levels — and everything in between — can influence a woman’s ability and desire to want to step into a leadership or management position.
Generationally, and historically, women have been taught to ask permission before they do things. Over time, the story has changed and women are told that they can have it all, but that has come with caveats including a perception that you can have the career, the leadership role, the management position and all the success but you have to do it on top of all your commitments at home.
Additionally, most workplaces are set up to align with outdated constructs that support men (because men used to be predominantly the only people in workplaces). But as women enter and re-enter the workforce they’re forced to exist within structures that don’t really support them and make it hard to advance. So, why would women want to advance within structures that don’t work for them?
Gone are the days when you leave home and enter “work mode” without any interruptions from the outside world … and then you leave work and go home and there aren’t any interruptions from work. Technology kyboshed this way of life and now we take home, friends, work, community and everything else with us everywhere we go on a 24/7 basis. There’s no break from any of it and it’s already overwhelming. So why would women want to add more to the load by taking on roles that are more demanding?
Until there’s serious restructuring work done to create environments that support women, there will be a lag in the number of women who will step into leadership and management roles.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become leaders and managers?
When women take charge the world changes. Women have long been resourceful, creative, compassionate, empathetic and imaginative, and when they bring these ‘soft’ skills to the workplace and overlay them onto technical skills the capacity to get things done accelerates.
Women are extraordinary problem solvers. They can see the facts and acknowledge the emotion and then find a way to meld the two together to create solutions that are out of the box. The results show that the workforce responds to this style of leadership with organisations that have women in senior leadership positions (especially board and C-Suite positions) have results that outstrip their competition.
Women have an innate ability to identify gaps, issues and problems before they arise, which gives an organisation a heads-up to be proactive instead of needing to exist in a reactive state. Furthermore, women have a strong sense of community and are able to lead others to join the push to achieve an outcome in a way that encompasses all strengths and fosters equity and inclusion. This means that skills and abilities across all facets are joined together to create a stronger outcome on a consistent basis.
Can you please share “5 Things We Need to Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management?”
1 . Create work environments that are conducive to women wanting to work there.
If you want women to lead, then you have to create an environment that they want to lead within. Women don’t network in the same way as men, nor do they want to have to do so.
Make the women’s networks as powerful as the men’s networks and don’t just give them a seat at the table, let them reshape the table so it works for everyone … and then empower their voices so that everyone listens.
2 . Provide pathways for women to obtain the skills, education and experience they need to seamlessly step into leadership positions.
Statistics show that women have fewer resources (money and time) to be able to upskill themselves. Therefore it’s imperative that they’re supported by their organisation to obtain the skills, education and experience they need to be able to be considered for leadership and management roles.
3 . Provide funding for women to access external professional mentoring and coaching.
An executive mentor can make all the difference in a woman finding the pathway to leadership and management roles. Men tend to find mentors from an early career stage, and that catapults them forwards. Women tend to believe that they can only afford a mentor that is provided within an organisation, and that doesn’t always provide them with the holistic coaching that they need. Providing the funding for women means that they will get the coaching they need.
4 . Apply the ‘it takes a village’ mentality to having women leaders in the workplace.
We apply the ‘it takes a village’ mentality to raising children, but no one thinks to apply it to women in the workplace. If you provide an environment where everyone works collectively to support and champion others, then you create an environment where it is easy to step forward and want to lead and/or manage.
The power lies in the moment when you recognise the individual super powers of each person and bring them together to create a holistic solution. Women are extraordinary at doing this, so create an environment where the collective is valued just as much as the individual and you’ll see women shine as leaders.
5 . Make it normal for women to be seen as a first-choice solution.
Despite the focus on increasing equity and diversity and raising the profile of women in the workplace over the last several decades, there is still an element of surprise and a ‘behind the hand giggle’ of incredulity when a woman is announced in a senior leadership role. Or worse, there’s a ‘rolling of the eyes’ assumption that ‘she got the job because she’s a woman’ and not because she was the best candidate and deserved it.
If you put points 1–5 in place then it becomes normal to see skilled, educated, qualified and experience women taking charge, giving direction and kicking every goal out of the park.
In your opinion, what systemic changes are needed to facilitate more equitable access for women to leadership roles?
As mentioned above, provide access to education, skills, qualification and experience, create a culture that supports and celebrates the collective as much as the individual, and provide funded access to executive coaching and mentoring for women. Do these things and you start to provide access to an environment that women want to work in, are prepared to lead within and that feel like they actually value the contribution that women create, bring and engender.
What strategies have you found most effective in mentoring and supporting other women to pursue leadership positions?
There are always two main focuses I work on with the female executives I mentor.
The first is confidence. Without exception, every female executive I have mentored or coached has lost their confidence somewhere along the way. This mostly happens because they’ve felt they’ve needed to shape and mold themselves to fit within a male-dominated and/or male-focused work environment. They’ve toughened themselves up, shut down critical aspects of themselves and become someone they don’t recognise. This then triggers imposter syndrome where they believe they’re failing even though their results show that they’re successful on a consistent basis.
The second focus is on teaching them the power of questions. Once they’ve reconnected with who they are and switch back on those key characteristics (such as empathy and compassion) that were previously shut down, the next step is to help them in the way they communicate with others to get the best results. By learning to ask questions at important times, they can help people find answers in different ways, shift perspectives and open up a whole new cache of opportunities, answers and solutions.
When my mentees nail these two skills, they become unstoppable. They’re more prepared to make themselves visible, have their voice and opinions heard and when that happens, everyone wins.
How would you advise a woman leader about how to navigate the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role within a male-dominated industry?
In the early days of my career, I worked in a male-dominated industry. I was lucky enough to have a senior female leader that I respected and admired share the following piece of advice with me:
‘You don’t need to try and compete with the boys club. It’s a boys club, you don’t need or want to belong. Let them have it, it will never work for you the way it works for them.’
Instead, she taught me to ‘read the room’ and know when to step forward and know when to withdraw. When stories of exploits at a bar or a club were being told, my name was never ‘mentioned in dispatches’. I became known for my contributions to the workplace, not to the rumour mill.
I’m so thankful to her for her wisdom and that I received it when I was at an early stage in my career. It served me so well over the years and I found myself in places I wouldn’t have otherwise if I’d tried to desperately fit in to a place where I never needed to go.
How do you balance the demand for authoritative leadership with the stereotypical expectations of female behavior in professional settings?
Everyone has their own unique leadership style. At different times, different situations require a leader to call on different leadership skills. Sometimes that means that authoritative leadership is required, while at other times it requires a softer leadership style.
The mark of a truly great leader is their ability to have people engage with the stated goal, outcome and direction and then passionately add their unique skills and expertise to collaboratively create the solution.
At its core, leadership is all about bring the right people together to create an extraordinary outcome. Remembering that lets all the noise about ‘male versus female’ leadership styles drop away, and it leaves an individual with the task of creating the best possible environment to get the job done.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would strongly encourage everyone to adopt a loving perspective on the world.
Society would have us believe that comparing, judging, and criticising others is the best method to determine how successful our own lives are.
We’ve been taught that competition is the primary motivation in life and that our sole objective should be to succeed at any costs, no matter the detriment to ourselves or others around us.
But, if instead we could see that everything we experience in life is simply a projection that is helping to point us towards the next step on OUR journey, perhaps there wouldn’t be a need for arguments, disagreements, war or greed, and then maybe our current way of thinking about life could end.
We would just align ourselves with what is in flow for us and let go of the things that don’t matter to us.
And at the same time, we’d be able to be happy for one other’s accomplishments and use that as inspiration as we work towards our own. We would shift from a state of scarcity and competition for resources to one of abundance for all.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I spend a lot of time in the online space and am frequently sought as an expert for media across all channels. I share a lot of my work through my online platforms that readers can access by connecting with me:
Website Link: https://www.sheiqlife.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bronwensciortinoauthor/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwensciortino
Free Email Series: https://www.sheiqlife.com/7-steps-email-series/
I also have an online program to assist busy working women reduce stress and beat burnout that can be accessed here: https://sheiqlife.com/kiss-fbpw/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.
Bronwen Sciortino Of sheIQ Life On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.