A new way of leadership?
Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 12:35PM 
So.
I have written a couple of posts related to gender and leadership recently (Jan 29th and February 12th). I find myself drawn back to the same topic today. There are several ideas or themes that bring me back:
- I believe very strongly that we suffer from a critical absence of real leadership today. Our current situation is framed as an economic / financial crisis, but I believe it is actually a crisis of leadership. And I have come to believe that we do not simply need different leaders, but a different way of leading.
- I have been thinking more and more about the different leadership tendencies of men and women. This is at least partially due to my participation in a program involving Emergenetics and some subsequent conversations regarding the different thinking style tendencies of men and women.
- I also see us approaching a point in time where women are going to be moving into senior leadership positions in far greater numbers. So...if they choose to, women can play a significant role in redefining what leadership is for our communities, our organizations and our society.
- A friend of mine shared an article with me by Judy Sorum Brown, called Welcoming the Feminine Dimensions of Leadership. It is a few years old now, but this article really resonated with me considering the other things that had been bouncing around in my head.
I think that reading and thinking about this article by Brown helped bring some clarity to my thoughts on this issue. Men and women lead and behave in any number of ways for any number of reasons. Gender is but one dimension of our social identity and the impact that our gender has in shaping our lives is probably more about us and our environment than it is about the gender itself.
But there are feminine characteristics or attributes and masculine characteristics or attributes (whether they show up in a man or a woman) and if we want to have leadership that is balanced, sustainable and whole...it would seem important to make sure that both sets of characteristics were integrated.
In the article, Judy Sorum Brown provides a list of complimentary characteristics:
Feminine+Masculine
Partnership+Competition
Inquiry+Advocacy
Ritual+Rigor
Curiosity+Certainty
Wondering+Knowing
Appreciating+Judging
Accepting+Asserting
Listening+Talking
Nurturing+Challenging
Stories+Analysis
Humanities+Sciences
Empathy+Objectivity
Creating+Building
Opening+Choosing
Attention+Intention
I really like this list and I think it helped clarify some of my points regarding this set of issues. What we are really talking about is having a balanced and healthy way of leading. This is a list of things that all can be valuable, but most importantly the masculine and feminine perspectives are complimentary. We are going to be better off if both are a part of the equation. In her article Brown asks a very important question:
How do we create conditions in which both the feminine and masculine perspectives are valued, celebrated, and heard?
I think that this is an important question and a very big question. We may be able to agree that all of these traits are valuable, but do we do a good job of seeking out, rewarding and promoting all of them? Or just some of them? Remember we are talking about things that are complimentary to each other, so our focus should be balance. In your organization (or family, or congregation, or community) is listening taught, supported, rewarded and promoted? What about empathy? Nurturing?
Regardless of the gender of the people involved, I believe that a critical part of our way forward will be bringing more balance to leadership. Love to know what you think.
Reader Comments (14)
I would agree with your premise that a more effective way to lead is to integrate previously dichotomous leadership traits/styles/characteristics. I want to start to draw the line between where we are now and this future state of leadership though. For so long, in America at least, leadership = rugged individualism and one-sidedness. It seems a progression is needed to wean us off of our dependence on absolutes and ends-of-the-spectrum thinking. I just had a friend I respect who joined a group dedicated to "taking back" Iowa for the GOP. I asked her who took Iowa away from her but haven't gotten an answer yet. I voted the opposite of her so does that mean that I now have Iowa? I don't think I "have" or "own" Iowa.
Our current National leader is a start to the complimentary thinking you describe and we need. It obviously isn't the end of this conversation though - keep on keeping on!
I agree with you. In order to receive a different way of leadership from a feminine perspective, we will need to retrain and rehire females that dare to trust their own instincts and abilities to make important decisions that reflect their God given feminine traits. Females need confirmation that its OK to think like a female. Transparency is needed at the Senior level, so that this discussion can occur. The right platform is needed for females to exhibit this leadership quality in our businesses. I agree that it is a healthy way of leading and we owe it to our children, our employees and to our country to change our leadership style so that everyone is represented.
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