The Leadership Strengths of Women
As we celebrate women during Women’s History Month, we pose this question: do you know why women* make outstanding leaders?
We have provided a webinar on Women & Leadership to clients and at workshops. As female leaders ourselves, this topic resonates strongly and deeply for us. We started our business to champion women and help individuals and organizations see their unique strengths.
photo credit: dulcey lima/unsplash
It’s no secret that there are different hormonal makeups to most women and men. And, while there is a broad range and every person is unique, some of these innate differences continue to be validated through research and can provide powerful strategies for ensuring the right leaders are in the right roles. We also understand that these capabilities can be learned or further developed over time.
Emotional Intelligence
In 2016 there was a study that found women overall to have higher Emotional Intelligence than men. According to Daniel Goleman, the pioneer of Emotional Intelligence (EI), it is defined as “recognizing, understanding and managing our own emotions AND recognizing, understanding and influencing the emotions of others”. It is an awareness of oneself, others, the outside world and the complexities of how all interrelate. People who have higher EI tend to be better at “coaching & mentoring, influence, inspirational leadership, conflict management, organizational awareness, adaptability, teamwork and achievement orientation”. And, according to the study, women tend to exhibit these qualities more frequently and naturally than do men.
photo credit: robina weermeijer/unsplash
Tend/Befriend
You are likely familiar with the “fight-flight-freeze” capacity of most humans. This is hardwired into us from centuries ago and was developed in order to keep us safe. In 2011, Shelley Taylor of UCLA published her findings of studying women’s brains, which showed a fourth response in women: tend/befriend. Based on hormonal makeup and interaction, women have a strong affiliative nature that leads them to tend to offspring to ensure their survival and affiliate with (befriend) others for joint protection and comfort. Women are more naturally compelled to ensure they and others are appropriately cared for/supported.
The innate wirings toward higher Emotional Intelligence and instinctual Tending/Befriending can allow women to be naturally impactful leaders. While society has historically characterized these as “soft skills” or “nice to haves”, we would argue that these are strong skills and must haves for authentic and powerful leadership. So, women--the next time you are questioned about your leadership capabilities, highlight your innate qualities and strengths as well as your learned experiences. And organizations--consider the positive impact of your leadership teams with more female representation.
Please reach out to Core Endeavors for leadership coaching and consulting--it’s our sweet spot of innate capability, experiential knowledge and personal passion.
Lead well,
Amy and Holly
*A note on the definition of female/woman: People affiliate along a fluid gender spectrum. For purposes of this blog we are highlighting hormonal brain science, which may be altered or influenced based upon hormone therapy, the study of which was not included in the data referenced in this blog. We define “woman” as anyone who identifies as female, regardless of their gender assigned at birth.
