If women have such excellent leadership abilities, then why aren’t more women in leadership positions? This is because the unique challenges of women in leadership are not always easy to overcome. Here are the 5 essential factors that women need to succeed as leaders.

1. Self-Esteem

This is simple enough to understand. In a world where women are encouraged to follow feminine pursuits and treated as less capable than men, lack of self-esteem is almost an epidemic in women.

“Women systematically underestimate their own abilities,” says Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg in her TED Talk. “Men attribute their success to themselves while women attribute it to other factors.”

Even high-achieving women lack self-esteem in one or more areas of their lives. This belief about oneself causes us to self-sabotage at crucial points in our lives, resulting in lost opportunities, abandoned plans and underachievement.

» Read more: 5 Essential Factors Women Lack That Sabotage Their Success