Connect To Level Up Your Leadership
A few years ago, Forbes posted an article titled, “New Research: Women More Effective Than Men in All Leadership Measures.” The article mentions several ways that women score higher on important leadership measures than men do, and then proceeds to discuss the fact that the hiring and promotion pipelines for women leaders are significantly less populated than those of men in leadership, and how companies can build more effective pipelines to foster women in leadership roles all the way up to the C-suite. It’s an interesting read, and will either bear out your confirmation bias or argue against it—feel free to engage as you’d like!
Stepping back from the topic of gender while reading the article, you see one thing standing out—the key advantages of women in leadership that they define are all around one larger topic—connection. The article defines these advantages as including, “Women leaders score significantly higher in their capability to ‘connect and relate to others,’” and “Female leaders more often lead from a ‘playing to win’ orientation—focusing on their natural curiosities about what matters most to the future they are creating and partnering with others to move toward that vision,” and “Women build and cultivate stronger connections.”
S0…women leaders are “good at leadership” by connecting with others—specifically using partnerships, relationships, and emotional intelligence to advance the company and leadership goals by connecting with and engaging people around those goals. That is good data for everyone in leadership, not just women. Because while women might be “better” at these things from an evolutionary, biological, or societal-systems standpoint, leaders from all genders are capable of excelling in these areas. We have (hopefully) all worked with great leaders of various genders who were great at seeing their teams as human beings, connecting with them, motivating them and leading them to shared accomplishments that lifted all the boats in the proverbial harbor.
And, of course, we’ve probably all worked with leaders of various genders that were terrible leaders, incapable of projecting a shared vision, content to never acknowledge anyone else, only concerned about their individual power, performance, and metrics, and unconcerned about others in their sphere, never showing collaboration, connection, or emotional intelligence, yet still finding their way to the leadership chair through some systemic or personal feat.
A takeaway from that Forbes article about women in leadership, then, can be that we should develop more effective pipelines to elevate women into leadership roles (in my personal opinion—yes, we should definitely do this for so many reasons!).
But another takeaway can also be that anyone can be a great leader, if they actively cultivate the tools to become a great leader, and if they genuinely care about and connect with the people they are leading. When we choose to lead from a place of shared vision, humanity, curiosity, humility, and respect, great leadership naturally occurs, and everyone—of all genders—is better for it.