Wanted: Women-Owned Business Seeks Women Thought Leaders to Even Out the Digital Playing Field
People often ask me about our name: KNG Services.
Since no one nation can undo March 8th as International Women’s Day, let me take this opportunity to explain.
The name is based on our founders—Kristin and Graceann. An ampersand quickly became an “N” over Slack, and KNG Services was born.
Neither of us set out to lead a women-owned business, but our experiences as women makes working together easier. In HR and corporate leadership, Kristin navigated being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated world. Working remotely for over 10 years, Graceann learned to navigate the world as a solo woman traveler and freelancer.
Despite the differences in our experiences, we share a resulting similarity: the desire to amplify the voices of women leaders and leave behind a digital legacy more representative of our equi-capable reality. Here’s how we see it:
Overcoming the historical disadvantage
American women had no right to vote until 1920. Until 1848, married women had no legal rights to own property, sign contracts, or control their own wages.
Throughout history, women have faced barriers to shaping public influence. Early philosophers excluded women from their intellectual and political circles. The Royal Society of London kept them out of their prestigious scientific institution until 1945. Princeton and Yale only started admitting women in 1969; Harvard not until 1977.
For centuries, women fought to get a seat at the table. Fortunately, today’s table comes with modern advantages:
The internet: It’s easier than ever to publish ideas and build influence.
Social media: Garnering an audience no longer requires a big break—everyday people share content in front of millions with only a blog, email, and social media.
Digital marketing expertise: An abundance of agencies are studying and strategizing how to amplify a digital message so you don’t have to.
Women have been thought-leading anyway
Despite disadvantages, women have always fought to make their voices heard. Sometimes, they published under male names. Mary Ann Evans had established herself as a writer by then, but the novel she published under the male pseudonym, George Eliot, became her most famous.
Sometimes, a woman’s ideas helped her break glass ceilings. Mary Parker Follett’s employee-centric management concepts encouraged leaders to “create more leaders.” Her innovative stance allowed her to become a social worker, author, lecturer, and consultant in an era when women rarely had careers.
Arianna Huffington co-founded The Huffington Post; Brené Brown’s “The Power of Vulnerability” is one of the most-watched TED Talks of all time—women today are reshaping business. Still, considering our historical disadvantage, it may take more effort to facilitate that into output with an equal opportunity to leave a lasting impact.
The transformational power of empathy
The authoritarian model resulting from exclusively male leadership is a lesson. In the "old boys' club" of the past, leaders were “real men” and employees were cogs in a machine. CEOs aimed for efficiency and emotional detachment. They would have laughed if you asked them about individual well-being.
As it turned out, such policies prevented capable women from advancing, stifled innovation, reduced employee satisfaction, and drove turnover.
Leaders were more successful with empathy. In a 2023 EY US Consulting study, more than eight out of 10 surveyed workers expected mutual empathy with leadership, which they felt drove efficiency, creativity, job satisfaction, idea sharing, innovation and company revenue.
Though considered “ahead of her time” in the early 1900s while most women were excluded from management conversations, Mary Parker Follett eventually became, “the mother of modern management.” Perhaps this was, in part, because of her biology: a 2022 UK study reaffirmed previous research indicating women exhibit higher cognitive empathy.
Transformation calls for balance
None of this is to say that women should be the only voices shaping future workplace conversations. No business model will be successful from the perspective of any one single denominational leadership.
Why?
Because successful leaders understand the value of collaboration and inclusion. Tomorrow’s leaders will turn to them for guidance, and the best lessons will span the experiences of men and women alike.
At KNG Services, we aim to ensure executives of all stripes have an equal opportunity to leave a lasting legacy through thought leadership. Ready to start building your influence? Let’s talk.
