Recent research by Gallup suggests that most organizations still use criteria for assessing “leadership potential” that disadvantage women.

Examples include everything from expectations of availability outside of working hours and extensive travel to technical and performance based measures that men are more likely to demonstrate (because they’ve been socialized and supported in those areas), but that don’t actually correlate with effective leadership traits, skills, and behaviors. In other words, women tend to possess characteristics that support effective leadership, but those characteristics are less likely to be valued when deciding who gets chances in leadership roles!

The reasons that women are often less able to “accept” certain requirements of leadership positions is not because they aren’t capable or don’t want them, but that most family structures still require that women assume greater domestic, particularly parenting responsibility, than men do in the same families. For example, Gallup reports that “Women with children are more than twice as likely as their male counterparts to have had to decline or delay a promotion because of family obligations. In addition, women with children are 2.9 times as likely as men with children to have seriously considered leaving their job because of childcare issues.”

Interestingly, similar numbers of men and women say that they would be open to longer working hours, additional responsibilities, and travel, for example, as part of leadership roles, but a smaller number of women can actually accept those challenges.

So, how can organizations support the promotion of more women into leadership roles?

First, senior leaders in organizations today – the vast majority of whom are still male and mostly white – must redefine the criteria they use for identifying and promoting individuals into leadership roles. Forget focusing on employees who have traditionally achieved and overachieved performance objectives, i.e., who have “hit their numbers.” Such employees may become great leaders, but if so, it won’t be because of their performance on discreet tasks. On the other hand, if executives look for things like communication and coaching skills, empathy, patience, creativity, and perseverance as criteria for future leaders, they will not only choose more women, they will get better leaders overall.

Relatedly, organizational leaders must learn to meet leadership candidates where they are, providing flexible options. For example, women rate both work-life balance and wellbeing higher than pay and benefits when deciding what jobs and roles to pursue and accept. This does NOT mean it is okay to pay women, or anyone, less, simply because you provide flexibility. It does mean that when considering which employees to offer leadership opportunities, flexible work arrangements will attract more women candidates. And, as Gallup notes, it is about more than just policy. It’s about culture. Employees who leverage flexibility cannot be punished for doing so or considered less than employees to choose more traditional schedules, work locations, etc.

In short, women tend to naturally possess characteristics that support effective leadership if organizations will only recognize that and adjust traditional criteria so that women are more likely to be offered, and accept, increasing leadership responsibility. Moreover, those same criteria support more powerful leadership regardless of a leader’s gender, so revising the lens through which leadership candidates are evaluated and selected will not only result in more women in leadership roles, it will result in more effective leadership overall.