For its latest episode of Elevating The Conversation, the Journal sat down with Lindsey Myhre, president and CEO of Liberty Lake-based STCU, to discuss the development of 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. It’s important to recognize women leaders and their accomplishments without pigeonholing them into a separate category.

 Recognizing women, especially in industries like technology and engineering and finance, where women leaders are a little bit harder to find, I absolutely think recognizing that challenge is important.

I think that representation matters. When we see women in these leadership roles, especially in industries where you don't see a lot of women leaders, it helps other women see themselves in those roles. And it helps drive them to see what's possible and see what potential is there.

We need to celebrate the progress. It looks very different now, than it did 27 years ago.

I'm proud to be a female CEO. I'm proud to be recognized as a female CEO, but I'm also a CEO of a $6.5 billion organization with 1,100 employees and 300,000 members. I think it's important to recognize both.

Expectations of the role don't change because of your gender. Results are still important. Leadership is still important. That's where I want to always be careful to not pigeonhole or just identify women.

2. It’s not a coincidence that credit unions in the Spokane area have more women in leadership positions than many other industries.

 I do think that it is the cooperative nature of credit unions. When employees' values align with an organization's values, there's longer tenure. When you have longer tenure in organizations, it gives you a little bit of an easier opportunity to grow. I know credit unions have very long tenure.

With that being said, I'd love to give a shout-out to my fellow women CEOs in the Spokane region. There are many of us.

I think something else that's unique in credit unions is we do work together. We support each other. We'll help develop each other's leaders within and across organizations, and I think all of that plays into that. I don't think it's an accident.

3. There are some challenges unique to women pursuing leadership positions.

 I want to be careful not to speak for all women, because every woman has a slightly different experience. They have different resources.

I think there are some traits and attributes that are pretty consistent across women that I feel really comfortable highlighting.

Women don't always apply for jobs. There's studies and research on it. Women don't apply for jobs if they don't check all of the boxes. That is something I struggled with personally. If I didn't have every single check mark on that job description, I didn't think I was ready for the next job. That's not true.

There are some other expectations — at the risk of sounding like the "Barbie" movie a little bit — women need to be decisive but not too aggressive. They need to collaborate, but they can't have too much authority. They need to be approachable, but they need to be confident. These types of, call them stereotypes or behaviors, are different things that get in the way depending on who that hiring leader is.

I am a mom of a high schooler still, and I have guilt over making sure that I'm watching the cheerleading and attending the community event that's in my responsibilities, even today. When trying to balance the expectations and work-life balance, I think my recommendation to all women is to lean on others, and you don't have to do it by yourself.

It's really, really, really hard to ask for help because you feel like you should be able to do it. And it looks like everyone else is doing it really well. Utilize your resources, whether it be a partner, a spouse, grandparent, a friend. People really do like to help. They're not just saying it. So take them up on it, and I think that can help reduce barriers that sometimes women put on ourselves.

4. Employers can promote more parity by developing strong leadership pipelines.

(Developing a pipeline to leadership requires) more than just encouraging people to apply for positions, because it doesn't work if they're not ready. 

There's a lot of opportunities, even what I would call low-hanging fruit, for organizations to focus on.

First of all, don't just look at leaders. Look at the entire organization. Look at individual contributors, leaders, up to the executive level, and then make sure you're very, very intentional as an organization of what you're developing.

Maybe it is a leadership pipeline. Maybe it's establishing stretch assignments for people that are longer than one project. Maybe it's leadership development programs. Maybe it's just developing a feedback culture.

There are different models out there that you can start with. You don't have to develop your own or start from scratch.

I think that how you measure success in your organization can change your culture toward this direction by measuring leadership qualities or how you treat people the same as you measure results. And if you're equally balancing those out, these things naturally grow within an organization.

5. Looking forward, the goal is for it to be less unique to have women in leadership roles.

 I certainly ran into roadblocks and challenges through my career and the industry, as banking is not really known for a lot of women in leadership — maybe outside Spokane credit unions.

But this is near to my heart because I have two daughters. When we've made more progress, I want them to spend less time wondering if they should be in the room. I want it to be less unique or unusual to have women in leadership.

I want the definition of leadership to be a little bit broader and include more of those traits like empathy and listening and vulnerability. Not as female leadership traits but leadership traits. Data will tell you that employee engagement goes up when you have strong leadership that practices those traits.

Looking at that transition from identifying those as women traits to just traits will be very important, so I'm looking forward to that day.