The Journal recently sat down with Gonzaga University's new president, Katia Passerini, for its latest episode of Elevating The Conversation to discuss women in leadership.

The Elevating The Conversation podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, and elsewhere. Search for it on any of those platforms or the Journal's website to hear the entire conversation, but for now, here are five takeaways — edited for space and clarity — from the episode.

1. Finding a mentor is important for aspiring leaders.

I had great mentorship. I did not know I could be a leader. I’ve always seen myself as the implementer.

I didn't realize that I can think strategically until others started recognizing that capability and skill in me. So, I am thankful to mentors who actually started asking questions and making me reflect on the way I was thinking about the future.

I slowly realized that a lot of what I was doing was in fact strategic thinking, which I think is very important in a leadership position. And then I started believing in myself thanks to that coaching and mentorship, and now I really enjoy it.

And going back to your original question, how do we then become role models for others, it's really being engaged with other women who are aspiring for leadership positions, even students.

I was so delighted; my first week on campus, I met all the freshmen in an opening address, and I spoke about myself and what I was doing, and how excited I was to be a freshman with the freshmen because I was starting as well.

And then the next day, a couple of young students, young women in engineering, came to me and told me, “We’re really inspired, and we’d like to … become like you.”

I always liked that opportunity to help others see a path to their own dreams. And that was done for me, and I'm delighted to maybe be in a position to be able to do it for others.

2. Increased equality at the leadership level is long overdue, but progress is being made.

If you think about the students who go to higher education nowadays, and the number of students who are graduating, you see that over 50% are women. It's so important for us to be able to mirror that.

The leadership in universities is becoming more and more a 50-50 reality because we are now producing many more women.

If you think about the history of higher education, the number of women was small and then eventually started expanding. And then we've seen a lot of imbalances depending on whether it's a social sciences-type of degree as opposed to a STEM or engineering degree. And now, all of that, it's balancing out.

The number of women in leadership positions is increasing overall. The equity pay gap still exists, and so there is more work to be done in those areas.

3. Leadership is at the core of Gonzaga’s mission.

We are fortunate to have a school dedicated to leadership studies, and so that is unique.

There aren't as many leadership programs embedded within other schools, a school of business, or a various discipline.

We are fortunate to have a tradition of a school of leadership studies that looks at leadership, not just from a scholarly perspective, but also from practical applications, minors for students, and opportunities for experiential learning. In their doctoral program, they're also preparing a lot of leaders in furthering their skills.

So, from undergraduate to graduate to doctoral education, we have a number of students that then go on and become leaders in their own industry and in their own way.

It's important because it's really part of the mission of the university. In fact, if you look at our mission statement, we are a learning community that educates students for lives of leadership and service to the common good. Leadership is really the first word that you find in our mission statement, which has a lot of other beautiful words, but it's really putting leadership at the front.

4. Self-doubt can be embraced as a catalyst for self-improvement.

It doesn't matter how many years I am in a specific position, even if I feel that it's an area where I'm maybe the subject matter expert because I've done something multiple times, I always have the fear of not being ready to lead a group and having that enormous responsibility of doing so. 

But I think that keeps me honest because it keeps me grounded. Maybe I should prepare more. Maybe I should articulate what we want to do better.

I've been teaching for 20 years, and with every new class, on the first day of class, I'm panicking because you are in front of 25 new students who are looking at you, and in five seconds, they're going to have an opinion on whether they like you as a professor or not.

The first time I do something, I’m always feeling the same way, but that then drives my eagerness and passion to really apply myself and try to get better.

 I actually think that the imposter syndrome is fine, because if you feel that way, that's where you're going to have that humility to listen to others. If you think you know it all, you're probably just going to follow one way.

But if you are really developing a new dream or new outcomes together, you can't have that assumption that you are going to be the smartest person in the room, because there is always something that we have to learn. So, I love the imposter syndrome because it keeps us real and honest.

5. Inequalities still exist.

Unfortunately, there are studies that show if you remove the name on a (curriculum vitae) and for a job application, you will see that there is a different perception of the value of that CV compared to another.

That’s something that is unfortunate. I don't think that we can change it overnight. But I think, as I mentioned before, the more women get into leadership positions and continue to do an outstanding job, the more I will see that going away completely.

If I had to give one piece of advice to women, it’s continue to do your best. It is true that you have to sometimes overdo it just to establish your credibility.

So what? It just makes us better.

More than 10 years ago, I was involved in a study at my institution, the New Jersey Institute of Technology. We were studying the different pathways to full professorship of women versus male faculty. We wanted to see, are they the same? Do women have the same opportunity as men to become full professors?

What we found is that there wasn't a difference in being promoted. They were being promoted at the same rate. That's why I am very hopeful that this is something that we are closing the gap on.

What we identified, though, is that the time they went for a promotion, the women generally had double the amount of service, higher teaching evaluations, and double the amount of grants research, because they were overdoing it and they wanted to really show and demonstrate that ability.

And to me, that's fine. It might require a little bit more work, but the results lead us to be more outstanding. I think it's something that we are able to close the gap with.