Best-selling author and therapist, Marisa Peer, sees women as some of the best leaders in business and wants to remind them to give themselves permission to believe in their own ability.

Speaking as a GWS keynote, she explained that women have huge potential in business and have a natural capacity to be great leaders – a powerful message for the spa and wellness industry which is predominately made up of women.

Peer shared that during her 30-year career as a therapist, around 80 per cent of professional female clients experienced imposter syndrome, compared to less than 40 per cent of men.

“I hear the same things over and over again, with most women saying they feel unconfident and don’t have enough self-esteem,” she said, “women feel less capable than men and they fear failure far more than them.”

Peer urged women to believe in themselves in order to tap their inner potential, saying that they should avoid thinking or acting like men – something that many female clients thought was necessary to be successful.

“When you think like a man you’re forgetting all the great qualities you have as a woman – things that I think, in many ways, make women better leaders than men – for example, women tend to have a lot more empathy.”

She offered some suggestions on how to be a great female leader:
– Give specific praise to your employees
– Show people that you know your own strengths, don’t shy away from them
– Tell yourself you’re more than capable of doing things that men can do
– Empower yourself, know that you’re a success and not an imposter

Peer champions that women should take on these skills, even if it feels unnatural at first.

“If you adopt them and do them enough, then you’ll become a natural leader,” she said.

“You must give yourself permission to believe in your ability because the quicker you do it, the sooner everyone else will follow.

“You can be anything and do anything, you just have to get over the block of thinking that you’re a woman in a man’s world – you do not need testosterone to be amazing."