Women Leadership Qualities – 7 Critical Reasons Why They’re So Needed Now

This article is about leadership qualities, specifically, Women Leadership Qualities, and how the imbalance of the number of women in leadership compared to men has been detrimental to the authenticity & performance of leadership in general.

The Reality Check

The Coronavirus has shown us all that leadership has been emptied of real values. Almost everywhere we can witness its dysfunctionality and its lack of authenticity, especially when men are leading.

It seems that for many power-hungry men leadership has become a subject for personal glory and power rather than a true service that it was meant to be.

In fact, the following story which I am sure you will recognize fits like a ‘hand to a glove’, or a ‘glove to a hand’ whichever you prefer, about fake leadership and the “fear compromised” cast of characters around it.

(Unfortunately, you see these soulless enablers everywhere that sell their “own mother” for a job…if you are one of those, be ashamed, shame can help lighten up the human soul)

“Two swindlers arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters.

Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent.
The emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work. A succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress.
Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city.

The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever.”

To me, as a professional coach and leadership training expert who has trained thousands of professionals worldwide, it is wholly evident that the imbalance in leadership between men and women has been catastrophic, extremely costly, and harmful.

The absence and imbalance of women in leadership caused a lack of leadership qualities, severely affecting the prospect of true and trustworthy leadership in organizations and governments.

It was meant to be a 50-50 collaborative affair and it isn’t.

Consequently, we all suffer from the Naked Emperor Syndrom as written above. Leadership decisions today are male-biased, which only accounts for half view, which distorts the real view.

This article is about Leadership Qualities in Women which were meant to make up the other 50% of leadership, and how important these leadership qualities are, particularly in times of crisis.

It is about how women leaders can help bridge the divide that has opened-up between leaders and those they lead, by naturally being disposed to leadership characteristics.

The Leadership Disconnect

It is very important to re-think, re-evaluate, and update the role of leadership in the 21st century, which is dramatically different from ever before.

Just look at the facts where COVID is concerned and look at the countries that are headed by women compared to those who are led by egotistical, “self first, self last, any more to come self again” bullies, masquerading as leaders, men.

Examining what leadership qualities should be vs. actual performance of an overwhelming amount of leaders will lead very quickly to the conclusion that we have a real disconnect.

True and authentic leadership qualities and actual leadership performance are heading in opposite directions.

It seems that the more a leader lies these days the better he does as if leadership qualities such as respect, honor, honesty, trust & humility have no significance.

I have written two books on the subject of leadership and had to conduct thorough research on the history of leadership.

I learned a lot, but more than anything I have learned that the lack of humility and empathy of many male-leaders coupled with maniacal ego possessive, territorial traits, hunger for power, and self-aggrandizement ambitions have led to the destruction and loss of lives of many millions of human beings.

History tells us this story loud and clear!

As humanity at large is experiencing a dramatic decline in human values it seems that leadership is showing the way!!!

This ever-widening gap between what leadership should be and what it has become must be understood so that we may fathom the importance of women’s leadership is.

 

Women Leadership Qualities

Although this article is not about women vs. men in leadership, it nevertheless, makes the immediate point that the human race needs women in leadership, with their own style, with their own unique skill set, and own unique gender leadership qualities.

However, it does not need women acting as men!!!

Some of the main differences between men and women in leadership concern the skills of emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and strategic planning which women naturally have.

It is a well-known fact that women’s ability to empathize is much greater than men’s.

Unfortunately, this has been looked down upon through the eyes of insecure,

macho-men as a sign of weakness, which is absolutely not true.

The exact opposite is true!

We know today, in no uncertain terms, that Emotional Intelligence is one of the most important leadership qualities that motivates and inspires the workforce more than any other leadership skill.

What is not known about leadership qualities in women is their ability to think and plan strategically.

Household responsibilities, outside work, and having to deal with being undervalued in their capacity caused women to think and plan ahead as a way of life.

Women have to juggle and multitask a lot more than men and therefore are naturally more long-term strategically inclined.

They need to pay strict attention to time management, order, budget, multitasking on many levels and, this is very important, they always make sure that they are presentable and carry themselves with stature,

In addition, women have to constantly make up for the egotistical ways that often typify men’s leadership by having to equalize men’s lack of balance and false ego surety of their actions.

Intergender Leadership Qualities

The need to combine inter-gender skills, qualities, and excellence must take place if leadership is to regain any merit at all.

This must be part of teamwork and especially the building of a cohesive leadership team with an equal number of women and men.

There should be no question at all about this matter.

The gender bias towards men in leadership is wrong and should be corrected everywhere without delay.

Such a situation would allow the best natural representation of the human race, where each gender brings its unique set of skills, which are different, but equally viable and necessary to the all-important function of leadership.

Women and men can work very well together and bring to the table complementary leadership qualities that lead to top-notch decision-making, big picture perception, and an all-around healthy organization.

I have introduced a new model of leadership that works tremendously well, if, and I stress, if, men are willing to put on one side their ego and pre judgemental ideas about women leadership qualities.

It works very well with self secured men. It does not work well with insecure men who constantly make up for their ego with an ever inflated ego.

It is imperative that the whole form of thinking about leadership changes from the concept of one leader to three leaders, a model that I use extremely successfully in my training.

 

What Do Women Leadership Qualities Bring to The Table?

Shining the light on the subject of Women in Leadership reveals simple truths and facts that must be taken into account in these pressing times.

It is hard to ignore the fact that women are naturally trained in leadership functions, simply by being compelled to efficiently manage the household.

Running a household in this tumultuous times is an intricate leadership task, often requiring the very same set of skills that are required to run a multi-billion dollar company or a government; The only difference is the scale.

The fundamentals are exactly the same;

• You need order,
• Strategic thinking,
• Strategic planning,
• The decision-making process needs to be competent,
• You need creative thinking,
• Thinking strategically about long and short-term consequences of decisions.
• You need good people management,
• You need strategic communication skills that are sensitive to the receivers’ needs and ability to comprehend and more.
• There is the constant need to put out “fires”, human dramas, make sure people are well, inspire them to continue, hold them to their promises, keep an eye on the tasks they promised to do, etc. etc. (Just like raising children)

So Yes, leadership characteristics are the same running a family or running a company.

Here Is Some More Of Women Leadership Qualities:

• Collaborative,
• Maintaining,
• Nurturing,
• Fostering the best of others and the best possibilities,
• Tapping regularly to the power of positive thinking,
• Being emotionally intelligent,
• Seeking for long-term balance and results,
• Avoiding jumping to quick conclusions,
• Weighing the evidence, taking the time to consider and reconsider without ego interference, and more.
• Ability to recover from difficulties
• High threshold for pain
• Consistency in functionality
• Maintaining order
• Self-responsibility and less reactivity
• Attention to details
• Ability to listen
• Patience
• Ability to custodian important matters
• Grace
• Dignity
• Communicating feelings

….and more, just watch and see.

This is not black and white. Men have these abilities as well if they can stretch beyond what is falsely considered as manly.

Let it be understood that part of the natural brain functions of men is feminine, and vise versa with women part of the brain is manly.

So it can be expressed equally by women and men and should be there to balance the hardness often characterized by men’s leadership.

Again, it is important to reiterate that these Women Leadership Qualities can be had by both, men and women, though they are naturally more prevalent in women.

Men would need to develop these skills consciously, or rather be willing to engage these skills without worrying about their self-image. (Leaders that don’t continually develop new skills become irrelevant and invalid to their people).

For example, I have trained many leaders in team-building skills in which the first requirement is to build trust.

The ability to build trust depends on the willingness to demonstrate vulnerability and show natural human emotions. Women did much better in this training than men.

The majority of men had to struggle with being collaborative because thew never trained in it and viewed it condescendingly as a weakness.

Let it be clear the ability to show and admit to weaknesses is a strength and it wins the trust of people because they see that they are dealing with a human being.

Women are emotionally stronger than men and embrace teamwork much easier. It is undeniable that teamwork is the very principle that ensures effectiveness and productivity.

Let me stress again here, we men need women leadership qualities but we don’t need women acting like men.

If men bring their strengths, boldness, ability to stay cool under pressure, courage, leading from the front, being strong and disciplined, demonstrating care, compassion, and resolve, along with the ability to change instantly and react to the need of the moment without fear or favor, we then have a real winning Intergender Leadership team.

This is a real blessing to any organization, government, or…household.

Leadership Training in The 21st Century

The best ROI in Leadership Training is when the leaders of both genders attend with the mission in mind that the best leadership qualities are learned and applied regardless of gender.

And if leadership training is to be effective and answer the needs of our times it has to focus on soft skills, which is to learn the art of what and how to invest “humanity” in their people.

Whatever business you are in, you are in the business of “Humanity” and you need to learn how to press the right buttons in people more than anything else.

Yes, you need to press buttons in computers but as an authentic leader, you need people skills and that’s what I focus on in my training.

This makes an organization healthy which results in high morale, low employee turnover, and increased productivity and profits. So it makes sense to invest in such leadership training

As noted above, this is, by far, the best ROI in the business world, which costs little and yields a lot, and ….is very seldom used.

Finally

The main purpose of this article is to offer a new perspective on how leadership can, and in my professional view, should be, in the 21st century, where both men and women can bring their own unique gender skills to the “table of leadership”.

Women in leadership is a must and not a minute too late.

It requires courage to go against the tide of men being natural leaders (not true!!!), but then again, courage, of all the leadership qualities, is the one that opens new doors and is and has been the herald of change forever and ever.

As has been explained leadership in the world today, mostly at the hands of men, has become toxic  (things become toxic when there’s no forward movement, just like water) causing death and destruction everywhere.

Of course, there is only one form of true, holistic, and situational leadership which is to lead by example!

What The Thinking Coach Leadership Training can do for Inter-Gender Effectiveness in Leadership

The Thinking Coach provides cutting-edge, international Leadership programs with inter-gender emphasis bringing forward the best men and women leadership qualities.

I introduce a new model for leadership where women and men work together and complement each other with a different set of skills that make leadership an effective body that promotes and inspires the very best from its workforce.

We demonstrate how women in leadership can bring their emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and strategic planning competencies into the “Table of Leadership” and the huge difference that it makes in the performance of the organization.

Our training seminars are challenging, practical & gratifying. The Leadership programs range from beginner levels all the way to top Leadership & Excellence Teams, where we offer a year-long extensive Leadership, training agenda, second to none.

We help produce first-class leaders who master a wide variety of soft and hard skills and learn to lead By Example using advanced teaching and workshop techniques.

We also have a unique, “Train the Trainer” seminars, to help companies, organizations & government agencies create their own self-sustaining Leadership development programs.

Eli Harari

The Life Coach for Professionals™