About fifteen years ago I wrote an article that was printed in Executive Women magazine.
It proffered the opinion that women are naturally real leaders (i.e. ones the people follow because they want to not because they have to) and more effective in leadership roles than men.
The audacious conclusions that led to my assertions were based upon an analysis of data collected over on year, profiling leadership effectiveness. The quantitative data was gathered from a set of leadership profiling tools I developed and refined throughout the nineties (and have used in my work ever since).
The measurements were/are based upon effectiveness in five key actions taken by those in leadership positions, and five key personal attributes that cause people to choose to follow them. (These factors were researched across 34 different countries over a period of 5 years with roughly equal input from both sexes.)
Naturally enough, the finding came as no great surprise for the readership of the magazine; but amongst males who came across the results, it provoked some degree of scepticism. Nonetheless, the results were unequivocal:
On average, women are 3% better at selling than men, 5% better at training and developing, 4% better at offering autonomy, 11% better at creating a safe and trusting environment, but 5% worse at being visible.
In persona attributes, women are 16% worse at exhibiting self-confidence than men, 10% worse at exhibiting energy, 19% better at exhibiting empathy, 5% worse at exhibiting conviction, and 3% better at exhibiting vision.
My profiling tools also measure the personal impact vital for effective leadership. Profiles show percentages of impact that is effective/ineffective. On average women create 3% more effective impact than men.
Profiling creates awareness of personal development needs. Steps can be taken to equip individuals with the requisite skills. Re-profiling monitors and measures improvement. The results showed that over a period of six months, the average male manager improves their overall personal leadership effectiveness by 1%. The average female, over the same term, improves their performance by 3%.
Unsurprisingly, of the senior managers profiled at that point, only 17% were female.
My original article went on to explain the apparent deficiencies in the female leadership profiles. Perhaps you can work those out for yourself?
Last week, I decided to run the male/female comparisons again. Here’s what I found:
On average, women are 8% better at selling than men (+ 5%), 14% better at training and developing (+ 9%), 6% better at offering autonomy (+ 2%), 27% better at creating a safe and trusting environment (+ 16%), but 1% worse at being visible (+ 4%).
In persona attributes, women are 9% worse at exhibiting self-confidence than men (+ 9%), 8% worse at exhibiting energy (+ 2%), 27% better at exhibiting empathy (+ 8%), 2% worse at exhibiting conviction (+ 3%), and 2% better at exhibiting vision (+ 1%).
On average women create 9% more effective impact than men.
The average male manager still improves their overall personal leadership effectiveness by 1%. The average female, over the same term, improves their performance by 5%.
This time around, 27% of the senior managers profiled were women.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. The writing’s on the wall!
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