Why Women make Better Leaders?
In the music video “Who ran the world” Beyonce addresses the subject of gender identity. Particularly, in terms of who makes a better leader. In recent decades, there have been calls for greater gender diversity at workplaces while enhancing the need to close the gender disparity. Although tremendous strides have been made in this aspect, there is still a fundamental lack of women in leadership roles especially around the world with special emphasis in the South East Asian Counties. If you take a look at the f you’ll see that only 15% of the CEOs are women. The companies that boast a higher representation of women on their boards outperform the organisations that don’t by a notable degree.
This is further supported by studies that have outlined that companies with greater gender diversity, not just within their workforce but directly among senior leaders, are significantly more profitable than those without. This clearly demonstrates that the need for more female leaders has never been more critical.
Why Women for Leadership Roles?
McKinsey & Company wrote a report that, throughout the UK, greater gender diversity on the senior executive team corresponded to the highest performance uplift in their data set. For every 10% increase in gender diversity, earnings before interest and taxes rose by a glaring 3.5%. From this data, we can uncover that women leaders have a key measurable impact on an organisation’s bottom line.
When women become leaders, they provide a different set of skills and imaginative perspectives. More importantly, female leaders bring structural and cultural differences to the table, which drive effective solutions. This creative standpoint and unique sense of awareness will also allow them to study and uncover the finer details that may go unmissed by others.
1. Attract Female Workforce
In 2019, the proportion of women in senior management roles globally grew to 29%. This remained constant in 2020 and grew to 31% in 2021, the highest number ever recorded. While this can be considered positive news, women just entering the workforce will need to be inspired by other women who are currently smashing their roles as a leader in the workplace. Once achieved, it can carve a direction for all young aspiring women leaders to increase the global percentage and break new records.
It can be encouraging for new female employees entering in the job market making their predecessors as their role models who made their way up to the position of leadership. This will help the younger generation from striving to break down barriers.
2. Innovation & Transformation
A meta-analysis comparing male and female leaders identified female leaders were more transformational. They demonstrated more contingent reward behaviour than the two-dimensional actions (active and passive management) presented by male leadership. This demonstrates a clear positive influence on the success of an organisation and its employees.
Women leaders will bring skills, different perspectives, and innovative ideas to the table, but these three combined will help create innovative perspectives that lead to better decision-making as a whole for the business.
3. Value Driven
Intelligence, Compassion and values are key to any serious and growing business organization. A survey by the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey ranked 2,250 adult women better than or equal to men in seven of the eight primary leadership traits assessed throughout the survey.
The key statistics from this survey outline that half of the respondents ranked women as higher on integrity than men, with 20% saying that men are more honest than women. In terms of intelligence, 38% said they viewed women as smarter, with only 14% indicating men are smarter. For the other cases, women were ranked as being more compassionate, outgoing and creative.
4. Can Wear Multiple Hats
In a women’s life, wearing different hats within their roles is a common occurrence. In our Eastern and Asian societies, from kitchen to bringing up children, from cleaning to laundry, one can see that women can very easily manage several domestic tasks flawlessly.
Same goes for the professional front. One can often find women balancing careers, households and taking up the mantel of parental guidance along with many other experiences. These help women leaders to quickly adjust to new situations and focus on finding solutions to real-life work issues.
5. Better Mentors
Especially for the younger generation, the power of role models cannot be overlooked. Regardless of a person’s gender, all people need someone who will guide them to progress in their careers. Women can harness their talents in this area because, for mentoring and coaching young talent, women leaders are better mentors than men.
According to a study, 29% of women believe that their gender can become an obstacle to advancement. To overcome this obstacle and fear, women in leadership positions do acceptopportunities and begin empowering the bright young minds of the next generation. This thought process alone drives them as better leaders as they believe in identifying Ability, Means and Empowerment.
Final Word
Organisations have a responsibility to create better policies and opportunities for women. Still, at the same time, women also need support to step forward and overcome the habits holding them back. Having said that, let’s dive into the world of women in the workplace, outlining the need for their presence and mindset and providing ten core reasons why organisations should no longer overlook the prospect of employing more women in leadership roles.
Women in the workplace frequently feel inferior to men in terms of compensation and leadership roles. Indeed, there are numerous industries where there are fewer women in leadership positions, and it can be difficult to speak up for yourself and advance when you’re being held back by a glass barrier. However, the reality is that women make better managers than men for a variety of reasons listed above.
About the Author
Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.
