Women leaders can make a huge impact by mentoring young male managers

Etsuko Okajima, President and CEO of ProNova Inc., facilitated this session, introducing the three panelists who shared their words of wisdom on how to be a leader, and how to raise leaders.

Kumi Fujisawa, the Co-founder of Think Tank SophiaBank and a woman who challenges herself by seeing how many jobs she could possess in one lifetime, began the session with her list of the 5 important qualities leaders must have. Next up was Patricia Jaquet, a psychologist and Director of Admissions & Marketing at College du Leman Sarl, who shared her ideas how to educate children to prepare them for the future. Naoshi Takatsu, a representative of IMD business school in Switzerland, stressed the need for business leaders to be able to cross all sorts of boundaries in this increasingly globalized and digitized world.

Ms. Okajima asked the panelists to speak about their philosophy of leadership. Ms. Jaquet mentioned the importance of critical thinking, and spoke extensively about measures taken at her school to help students develop leadership skills, including teaching them to receive feedback. Mr. Takatsu encouraged the participants to broaden their sense of their own identities, and explained the value of diversity in ourselves and as well as the workplace.

Ms. Okajima asked the panelists about the importance of technological literacy today. Mr. Takatsu’s insight was that with technology evolving so rapidly, it was more important to grasp the trends and figure out how to navigate through it to accomplish your goals rather than to believe you can know everything. Ms. Fujisawa added statistics about the impact of AI on the labor market. Ms. Jaquet talked about the need to learn to manage change and to understand the added value of technology. Mr. Takatsu revealed the most important leadership trait in a world where we cannot possibly know all the answers.

Mr. Takatsu shared some of his school’s research on women leaders; most of today’s leadership qualities are, in fact, attributes associated with men in today’s society. Aware of the burdens that women face in the male-dominated corporate world and other societal stereotypes that sometimes hold them back, Mr. Takatsu offered advice on how to step up and take full advantage of the qualities they possess to rise to the top. He explained the differences between transactional and transformational leadership and why this is such good news for women in management roles.

In the Q&A portion, the panelists shared more advice: Mr. Takatsu explained one of the most important attributes a female leader must have and gave examples that clearly illustrated his point.

Ms. Okajima brought up an essential aspect of leadership in today’s world: the need for role models. The moral of the personal story that Ms. Jaquet shared about her daughter was “We must trust our kids and give them the opportunity to flourish in their strengths.” Ms. Fujisawa shared her belief, inspired by her father’s advice: “Education is the best heritage we can leave our children.”

Following up on his remark that it’s great for women to mentor other women, Mr. Takatsu said “Women leaders can make a huge impact by mentoring young male managers.”

After a lively Q&A, the appreciative audience applauded the panelists closing remarks.