A fitting panel for National Women’s Day is to examine ways in which women have kept others down and how to counter such behaviors in the workplace. Julie Koepsell, Managing Director at Mirum moderated a panel with three other successful women in advertising to explore the various ways women sabotage their own efforts at success by tearing each other down rather and ways to counter such behaviors and turn a negative situation into a positive bond.

Koepsell began by exploring the many permutations in which numerous women on the panel and in the room had experienced being put down by a female boss, enumerating the three top reasons for such behavior:

• Competition: A younger woman is seen as competition to be eliminated by any means necessary
• Queen Bee behavior: distancing herself from the younger women to better her chance at excelling
• Overcoming Adversity: after surviving the tough environment to get where she is, she has no compassion or empathy left for others.

The discussion turned to ways of realizing destructive leadership in others and in the self, addressing it when possible. There is no single right answer in every situation. Sometimes a conversation is all that is needed, to communicate honestly and thoroughly and rectify misunderstandings and get on the same page. Sometimes, as Francine Anthony clearly explained, “you have to walk away.”

“If we try to work together, we can make change on the systemic issues we face as women,” said Cherry Park of Qualcomm.

The hardest part, but just as vital as addressing a difficult situation, is to acknowledge when one unthinkingly hurts others and taking steps to rectify the situation. Francine Anthony, Senior Director Partner Marketing at Sitecore and Mara Lecocq, Where Are the Boss Ladies and Fishbowl share a time when they unknowingly engaged in behavior that hurt other women, and how they were able to address the situation and turn it around into a productive conversation and forge a stronger bond.

In the advertising sector, it is easy to find women in leadership that exemplify female allyship, check out wherearethebossladies.com.