Some would say that women are born to become leaders. They have a way of earning respect and admiration for their ability to move seamlessly through life while managing to excel and show their passions clearly. So, why is it that women make better leaders and how can businesses encourage and benefit from female leadership? How can we learn from that and progress into optimizing business efficiency?
Women are almost effortlessly courageous when they have passion driving them. They bring change and order, and they’re unafraid to work until they reach their goals. While there are many reasons women make such great leaders, a few stand out above the rest.
1. ABILITY TO EMPATHIZE
Women are nurturing and typically compassionate and while many people may believe there’s no room for a soft heart in leadership, it’s easily shown to be beneficial with female leadership. A woman’s ability to show empathy is often what builds such strong connections and teamwork. People enjoy feeling appreciated as if they’re heard and understood, and most women in leadership roles can use their ability to empathize to make employees feel that way.
Additional ways empathy is beneficial
1. Empathizing is the key that unlocks the door to communication and opens it for the team to grow. By building a team using empathy to strategically cater to your team, you can create an environment where workers are encouraged to voice their opinions and be honest.
2. It makes people under that leadership feel appreciated and valued. By highlighting the importance of their work, employees will work harder with the understanding they’ll be rewarded through supportive comments that showcase their value to the team.
3. When people feel comfortable and cared about, they’re more likely to follow their leader.
2. TAKING INITIATIVE
Women in business settings are often chasing personal growth, which pushes them to take the initiative in getting things done. This can be beneficial to a company wanting to progress and grow. Females in leadership are often the first to speak up and share ideas, highlighting the creative and innovative thinking side of the female mind.
How can initiative help my business grow?
1. You may witness females taking responsibility and stepping up to ensure business needs are met, even when it means working extended hours or doing the ‘messy’ parts of the job.
2. Women taking initiative can encourage other females to pursue career growth by setting an example.
3. Additionally, this can be a time when you witness a female’s empathetic side, as she will encourage constructive dialogue around innovative solutions.
3. ARTISTIC ENTHUSIASM
Creativity and inspiration are something many females excel in, resulting in them excelling in management. You can find that women are typically quick-witted and always prepared to use their artistic side to boost business morale.
You might notice this in moments such as
1. Workplace events
2. Meetings
3. Presentations
4. MULTITASKING CHAMPIONS
While many women are accustomed to filling in many positions to ensure things get done, their multitasking skill set is unmatched. You’ll find that women leaders can balance many tasks at once while successfully performing their specific job role. With their ability to create a sense of community, they’re driven to act as caregivers. This allows women in leadership to manage labor effectively as they are able to create and promote team morale.
Benefits of a leader who can multitask
1. You can reduce the cost of labor by getting more work done with less help
2. When you’re short-staffed, your leader can step up and fill in the open roles
WHY SHOULD LEADERSHIP ROLES BE FILLED WITH FEMALE LEADERS?
Finding a balance between female and male leadership is important in any successful business. By putting females in higher-level roles, you set the decadence to encourage and inspire other entry-level workers with the example of successful female leaders to look up to. Not only does this create a sense of purpose but it also makes workers feel safe and secure in their job. It creates an atmosphere of equality and potential growth, allowing associates to feel that they can truly reach for the stars when it comes to being successful.
In addition to creating a comfortable work environment, women have the soft skills needed to appropriately communicate that the workplace is meant for work. This can be their ability to easily adapt to situations, their emotional intelligence and compatibility, as well as their openness to feedback.
Their ability to be nurturing will make personnel feel that they’re being listened to whether there are issues at work or outside of work. This makes hired labor feel heard and can assist in helping them emotionally overcome a situation so that they can return to focusing on the job at hand.
Overall, filling a leadership role with a female can be a better decision to help with things like employee morale and reducing moments of miscommunication. When you fill that leadership role, you’re able to recognize the benefits and watch as business production improves.
FEMALE LEADERS VS. MALE LEADERS
When you compare female leadership to male leadership, you’ll find a drastic difference in the way they work. While both can get the job done, they each handle situations in a different manner.
Female leadership
1. Great for handling serious conversations and communicating things like business needs
2. Good at thinking critical situations through and handling crisis moments
3. Soft skills make them relatable and easy to talk to
4. Strong work ethic, goes above and beyond
Male leadership
1. Good at handling situations that may be unsafe or become physical
2. Actions and tone of voice tend to come across more harshly and can make people feel as if they’re in trouble
3. Works well in a fast-paced environment, but may not do well at making quick-moment decisions
4. Male leadership may be more independent than team-oriented.
At the end of the day, there are many reasons women make better leaders. When it comes to growing a business, creating and enforcing discipline in the workplace, setting standards, and driving progression, women can get the job done efficiently and correctly.
Do you have a female in mind that you’d like to promote to a leadership role? Maybe you’d like to assist her in training and learning about management. Are you a female that’s looking to expand on your career path potential and you want to improve your capabilities?
Syracuse University is currently offering a course just for that. The Women As Business Leaders online short course from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University is an 8-week online course that provides you with a personalized action plan to develop your management skills. You’ll leave the course with the practical knowledge needed to advance your professional development, improve negotiation tactics, and drive diversity and innovation in the workplace.
This online course is presented by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in collaboration with GetSmarter.
