Companies Need Women Leadership Style
Leadership has historically worn a masculine face. The idea that men make better leaders than women still persists. In some societies, like parts of Africa, people believe men lead and women follow.
To reach a leadership position, a woman doesn’t just need to provide vision and meaning for an institution. She also faces cultural barriers and entrenched expectations.
Society’s beliefs aren’t entirely wrong, though. Women and men aren’t identical. Their leadership styles differ. These differences allow women to take charge of public and private organizations, often with excellent results.
A 2011 research study of 7,280 leaders found women outperformed men in 15 of 16 leadership competencies. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, who conducted the study, noted that women scored highest in “taking initiative” and “driving for results”—traits long considered male strengths. Even though men made up 80% of the sample, those around them saw women as better leaders at every level.
Roslin Growe and Paula Montgomery’s research, “Women and the leadership paradigm: bridging the gender gap,” found schools with female administrators were better managed. Pupil learning quality and teacher performance improved. These schools, on average, outperformed those managed by men.
This study isn’t an outlier. Many others reach similar conclusions. Women lead differently than men. Growe & Montgomery suggest this difference stems from how men view leadership as “leading,” while women see it as “facilitating.”
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Successful companies motivate employees and align them with organizational goals. This shows up in business performance and in the company’s ability to attract and keep talent. These companies succeed because they prioritize relationships. Their leaders create deeper emotional connections with employees. They care about their teams, listen to them, and support their personal and professional growth.
A focus on relationships, emotional involvement, and cooperation over hierarchy describes three key features of women’s leadership.
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Josephine M. Kiamba highlights that “women portray a more participatory approach, are more democratic, allow for power and information sharing, are more sensitive, more nurturing than men, focus on relationships and enable others to make contributions through delegation.”
Eduardo Melero, a professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, researched how companies with many women managers operate. His study showed these organizations were far more democratic. They used employee feedback in all decision-making. As a result, these workplaces made better, more informed decisions and reported higher levels of employee satisfaction. Workers felt their contributions mattered and their voices were heard. Modern work environments need more leaders who embody these traits, generally associated with women.