The world as we know it is changing — fast. Today, collaboration trumps competition, and gone are the days where power over people works any kind of wonder. With job satisfaction as an essential microcosm of society-at-large, it is clear that a new culture of work and modus operandi has emerged – and it’s a ‘She’.
Driven mostly by the tidal rise of new generations who work and live with a different set of priorities, needs, values and attitudes, it seems the more bull’s eye-orientated ways of leading a team and even running a boardroom meeting no longer cuts the mustard. Job seekers and team players are calling out the gavel on all things dictatorial in the office.
“Line Managers and their teams are seeking so much more than just target-driven portfolios these days,” says Kerry Morris, CEO of recruitment agency, The Tower Group. “The skills required to thrive in today’s work-age are now including softer skills with a deeper impact on job satisfaction like empathy, communication, inclusiveness and collaboration. All of which come, by default, more naturally to the fairer sex,” says Morris.
As a result, feminine leadership is forging the way of the new economy, and, increasingly, more and more leaders cross-industries, cross-countries and cross-gender are not only taking notes but also starting to embrace a 360-degree style of leadership that is proven to be more effective, more powerful, and more necessary than ever before.
What does the Feminine Economy look like – and why does it matter?
Today, there are more women at the helm of Fortune 500 companies than at any other time in history; an encouraging stat, but, at 33/500, one that highlights that there is still a very wide gap to close. While stats such as these paint a somber picture and large-scale inequality still exists in pay checks as well as in the proportion of male-to-female leaders in the global workforce, when it comes to the multiple advantages that feminine leadership capabilities bring to businesses as well as to a company’s bottom line, the lipstick is on the wall.
Morris rounds up 4 key feminine leadership skills that every leader, female or male or nonbinary, should readily adopt as part of a well-blended management strategy.
The Feminine Toolkit:
1. Empathy
It’s been identified as the single most important leadership trait that helps to guarantee overall success. Empathy in a leader means having the ability to not only listen to others, but to hear them, and to walk a mile in their shoes. It’s the compassionate ear and lens that works to promote understanding, cooperation and long-term commitment — as well as mutual respect.
2. Collaboration
A collaborative approach at work not only inspires and instills the shared sense of work, goals and alignment, but is also a way to hear, honour and make room for multiple points of view and ideas. It levels the playing field and allows for team work to make the dream work; and is the superpower that understands that, when we work together, we can go further; and that true success is shared success.
3. Vulnerability
Hand-in-hand with humility, comes the great power of vulnerability: The ability to be brave and confident enough to be seen as a human, first. Great leaders are unafraid to admit mistakes, to take responsibility for their actions, and to put their hand up when they need help. By doing this, they allow others the permission to be vulnerable as well. This in turn creates a real, human-centric, respectful environment where people not only feel seen but also supported.
4. Inclusiveness
Cultivating team spirit — creating a space and atmosphere where everyone feels welcome, needed and celebrated — goes a long way to building the kind of culture where people want to do great work. Employees feel not only appreciated, but also that their work has purpose and value. This creates the kind of environment where people want to do their best work, and to contribute everything that they can for the benefit of the greater team, and the success of the wider company.
“At the end of the (work) day, feminine leadership belongs to all of us. It is a state of being that recognises and understands that we are here to connect, to learn, to share and to evolve; and to lead as humans, first,” says Morris.
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