Is it time for more female leadership?

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9 Jun

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s most popular PM for 100 years epitomises the best in female leadership

Social change has intensified during the lockdown and there is a dialogue powered by this change, causing us to question the behaviour of the past and its residual effect on how we think and behave today.

So, in this week’s thought piece, I suggest that perhaps leadership styles are becoming outdated. Could we all benefit from more female leadership?

History, it is said, is always written by the victors of war, and the victors tend to be (with very few exceptions) almost entirely men. So it shouldn't surprise us that the predominant leadership styles we have accepted as normal are therefore male in character.

Is a leadership style that has evolved and developed to win wars and control society still fit for purpose in the modern age? Does this style effectively align with the needs of a diverse and progressive society?

The male style of leadership leans firmly towards command and control. This dominating leadership style is often misinterpreted as ‘strong’ leadership. This notion is now outdated.

If this is the case, what is so compelling about a female style of leadership?

There is a lot to be said about female leadership. A more compassionate, humble, collaborative and inclusive approach, as we've seen in the political world from New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern generates compelling results by becoming the most popular NZ PM in 100 years! As Ardern says herself ‘to be compassionate is not a weakness’. If there is a culture of trust and compassion people are more likely to feel safe, valued, motivated and inspired through shared purpose.

Contrast this style with ex-US President Trump at the other end of the spectrum to get an extreme example of male leadership.

And female leadership is not only relevant in the world of politics, and this does not have to be confined to women alone. Just as men can be feminist, men too can adopt female aspects of leadership.

Leadership needs to adapt and more balance is needed

The behavioural downsides of male leaders are that they are far more likely than women to be self-serving, individualistic, and at times narcissistic. This style jars with modern concerns for diversity and inclusivity. The male style prioritises fear over inspiration, charisma over competence, compliance over creativity, decisiveness over thoughtfulness and ‘me’ over ‘we’. This, I sense is however breaking down as the rapid change of the past year is serving to lend more weight to the notion that a female approach would be more effective now, and in the future.

Add into this the fact that trust is so important in creating a culture of sustainable high performance. The alpha male leader, whose priority is their own career trajectory, doesn't instil trust in others. If your foremost concern is yourself, how could it?

Find out more about trust from this short Simon Sinek piece: Who's the Asshole?

So does this the death knell for male leaders?

No, of course not.

Will we see growth in female leadership that tips the balance from the low approx 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs to 50% any time soon?

Most probably not, as this kind of change is slow. However, the males among us who can see that an alternative leadership style has some proven performance advantages business-wise might do well to embrace change and more diverse, compassionate, inclusive and trust-based leadership, not just to ‘look good’ but to equip their business effectively for the future.