Women in the Lead
How Women Are Changing Leadership As We’ve Known It
I believe we need to change the narrative around gender equality and focus on the facts as to why female leadership is so important.
If you’ve been watching the world landscape throughout the coronavirus pandemic, one thing should jump out: some countries have suffered far less than others. Some countries have had astonishingly less virus infected citizens and deaths. There is a commonality among many of these countries - they are led by a woman. Forbes outlines the female leaders who have shined in recent weeks for their leadership in one of the most difficult times in recent history.
CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE
Iceland, Taiwan, Germany, New Zealand, Finland, Iceland and Denmark have all proven that women leaders are stepping up to show the world how to handle a global pandemic. Some may use the copouts that these are small countries, islands or various other excuses, but the truth is every country in the world has had the potential to be hit hard and most have been crippled. Coronavirus doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care if the subject is Eastern, Western, white, black, male, or female, but it does take the more vulnerable, and every country has an elderly and a health-compromised population. These leaders are providing a chance to take note and ask ourselves about what made the difference in their approach and what we may learn for the future.
Transparency, Honesty & Over-communication
Germany’s Angela Merkel kept the country death toll far below its European neighbors by avoiding any waste of time in denial, anger and disingenuousness. She took the threat seriously, communicated as such, and began testing immediately. She said since there was no known cure, the focus would be on slowing the spread. "It's about winning time," she said. (Source)
Decisiveness & Speed
Australia and Taiwan both have about 24 million people, both are islands, and both have strong links to China. Ten weeks later, Australia had almost 5,000 confirmed cases, while Taiwan had less than 400.
"Taiwan rapidly produced and implemented a list of at least 124 action items in the past five weeks to protect public health," report co-author Jason Wang, a Taiwanese doctor and associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, said in a statement. "The policies and actions go beyond border control because they recognized that that wasn't enough.” These measures included travel bans, ceasing cruise ship docking, strict punishments for breaking quarantine orders, ramped up domestic face-mask production, nation-wide testing, and punishments for spreading misinformation. (Source)
Technology
Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir quickly initiated a contact-tracing initiative that helped identify individuals who had come into contact with the virus and urged them to stay in isolation. The country rapidly expanded testing capacity so anyone in Iceland who wants to be tested for coronavirus can be. (Source)
Finland’s Sanna Marin used social media influencers as critical agents in fighting the virus by providing them fact-based information to spread. This millennial leader understands younger generations don’t rely on the press, so technology helped fill the gap for information. (Source)
Compassion & Empathy
Norway’s Erna Solberg used television to speak directly to the country’s children with a press conference with no adults allowed. She answered their questions and told them “It is OK to be scared when so many things happen at the same time.” (Source)
All of these female leaders have shown what it is like to embrace, understand and take care of a population in a way that is not familiar to the world. They have shown compassion and empathy go a lot further than the tactics we have accepted as the political norm. It is a far cry from the male leaders of many countries who have embraced fear, blame, and aggressiveness toward journalists to gain ground in their authoritarian agendas.
MOVING FORWARD
These female leaders have verified the idea that female leadership qualities would be beneficial to both countries and companies. Rather than women learning to emulate men, the characteristics that set women apart from their male counterparts are exactly what the world needs more of as we shift into an evolving norm.
The prominence of male leadership is not indicative of better qualities in men. Instead, large quantitative studies show that gender differences in leadership are nonexistent or favor women. So, telling women to “lean in” really isn’t the mindset or the advice we should be giving leaders. It would be better to clarify when and how it is truly beneficial to lean into anything. Leaning into male characteristics is exactly the opposite of what we need moving forward. Competence rather than confidence is what we need to measure and elevate. We also need to redefine the leadership competencies that serve. We are learning that we need to focus on self-awareness, inspiration, people first, empathy, elevating others, and humility.
Here are some natural strengths of female leaders that men can learn from as outlined by Forbes:
Self-awareness
Female leaders have shown a greater ability to accept their limitations. They are not as insecure as portrayed in many narratives. Women are more accurately confident through self-awareness as opposed to overconfident, a tendency many male leaders suffer from. Awareness of weaknesses and flaws opens a wise leader to fill the “gaps” with other people who are strong-suited in these areas.
Inspiration
Women are more likely to inspire people by aligning them with meaning and purpose as opposed to motivating with small goals and rewards. Leading people with emotional intelligence as well and intelligence can nurture and change beliefs on a much higher level which leads to engagement, performance and productivity.
People First
Women are generally less self-focused than men. They care more to achieve a common goal than to elevate themselves. It is integral in today’s world that leaders understand who works for whom. Female leadership is more naturally service-focused to help those whom they lead rather than use them to serve themselves.
Empathy
I think we’re well past the days where we say someone is too caring to lead. Today’s society requires leadership that is capable of forming an emotional connection with their shareholders. Female leaders provide the human element (or soft skills) of empathy, compassion, appreciation and validation that is needed.
Elevate Others
Female leaders are more prone to elevating their employees through coaching, mentoring and development than their male counterparts. Perhaps it is less of an ego issue for women to be open to elevating others to unlock their potential.
Humility
Humility is a feminine trait and known to be a trait in gender differences. Today’s leaders must acknowledge their mistakes and grow from them. They must be able to listen to others around them and be willing to change themselves. It is not that men are unwilling to show humility, the trait has been dismissed for leadership roles in the past. Humility is a key characteristic in leadership for both women and men.
SUMMATION
The key is that the world needs to redefine the characteristics of leadership that we support. We should no longer support the solo strongman mentality we have been accustomed to for so long. In understanding the true characteristics we must look for in leaders, it is apparent that the world needs female leaders equally blended with male leaders to strike the balance that will best serve all citizens and shareholders. Understanding the difference empowers all of us to put a better blend of leadership in place.
For men to not agree only perpetuates the issues we find fault in our leadership at present. For women to not embrace their unique characteristics in an effort to prove to be exactly like men forfeits the battle to introduce more of the natural feminine traits that are now improving governments and companies.
I believe are in a leadership transition, and we all must seek and support what is best moving forward. The coronavirus pandemic has provided ample evidence that women are not failing us. It serves us all to support the transition toward a more equal balance in leadership.