Women, Naturally Better Leaders In Times Of Crisis And Beyond

Leadership lessons men can learn from women

This article sets out some data and reasons for women leaders to be not only viewed equal to men but, in some cases, recognise their superior natural leadership skills.  In this way, I suggest we can begin to counter the built-in bias which has led to generations of lower representation of female leaders in organisations and governments across the globe.

Since 2008, LeaderShape Global has been collating and analysing results from our Leadership and Emotional Intelligence Performance Accelerator (LEIPA®), 360-feedback tool.  Over this period, we have identified key emotional intelligence attributes related to excellent leadership, where women score statistically significantly better than men.  This data was initially published in a white paper in 2016. 
 

 

In the four Emotional Intelligence (EI) Capabilities where men scored better were Emotional Self-control, Self-confidence, Accurate Self-Assessment and Adaptability (although the last one is not statistically significant). The key EI Capabilities where women scored better included Service Orientation and Developing Others but also Change Catalyst, Transparency, Empathy and Inspirational Leadership.

Although women scored better than men in other capabilities too, the results were not statistically significant.

In EI terms, the male strengths cluster in the areas categorized under Self-awareness and Self-management, those of women under Social awareness and Relationship management, demonstrating that on average women tend to be better at dealing with people.

So, what is it about these capabilities that correlate to women leading more effectively through the crisis? What does this tell us about our need to enable more women leaders to come to the fore? 

It is interesting to consider the data around the death rates from Covid-19 as of 12 April 2020, in female-led countries during the current coronavirus crisis.
 

 

 

In the majority of comparatively rich male-led countries, the fatality rates are significantly higher than in these countries.  One can point to smaller populations and easier containment in some of these countries, but not all, Germany being a case in point.

What do the actions of these women leaders tell us about the nature and value of female leadership?  As a recent Forbes Magazine* article suggests there are key attributes that these leaders have adopted:

Truth – Angela Merkel was bold with the truth from the start (no denials from her), that this was a very serious outbreak and could develop to have a massive impact on the German population and economy. So, the testing and tracing were accepted and stages of disbelief and non-compliance were minimised. Truth correlates directly to the capability of transparency in our table.

Decisiveness – Tsai Ing-wen acted rapidly and decisively at the first indications of this new illness, implementing 124 measures immediately that avoided a lockdown or explosion of cases.  Taiwan is now at the forefront of sending masks to other more adversely affected countries.  These actions resonate with the attributes of Change Catalyst and Achievement Orientation.

Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister, also executed a rapid response that was effective in locking down and explaining the reasons for her vision for the immediate and decisive response. Here, her words and example not only resonate with the attributes mentioned above of Tsai Ing-wen but she also showed Inspirational Leadership and Empathy for her countrymen.

Technology - Sanna Marin (the youngest leader of all) and Katrín Jakobsdóttir, of Finland and Iceland respectively, both embraced new technology. Iceland has driven testing on a scale beyond other countries to create a template for the spread and tracking of the disease so as to avoid lockdown, shutting schools and other impacts.  In Finland, social media influencers have been harnessed to spread fact-based information, recognising not everyone follows traditional news channels. These two leaders demonstrate not only the previously mentioned attributes, but also Service Orientation and Developing Others.  In service of their countries they pushed testing and media boundaries. Thereby creating a drive to develop the skills of those in the community and on social media to address the needs of the country in a new way.

Love – Erna Solberg of Norway reached out with empathy and concern to the children of her country, inviting them to ask questions and speak to her directly on television, responding directly to their questions and assuaging their fears.

Comparing these real-life examples of empathy, transparency, embracing change, and inspirational leadership throws into stark relief the actions of some of the male leaders of other nations, where arrogance, the blame of others, and overweening self-confidence have resulted in a period of denial which, in turn, resulted in less decisive action being taken.  Perhaps they thought they would have looked weak or frightened to respond as women leaders did? This is a perennial challenge for leaders, especially those driven by their ego and therefore susceptible to popularity polls and ‘optics.’ And, as we can see, these are more frequently men.

These findings reflect a recent HBR article** about the leadership lessons men can learn from women:
 

Value the attributes of women leaders and see them as the strengths they are. Adopt those capabilities where you have further development potential and harness (hire more!) women leaders to bring more of these strengths into being in the workplaces and hallways of power of tomorrow.

Developing these ways of leading are key components of what we term ‘Transpersonal Leadership’ and a pathway is available for anyone who wishes to do so, both through our book ‘Leading Beyond the Ego – How to Become a Transpersonal Leader’ and/or through becoming or working with an accredited Transpersonal Leadership Coach.

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