Women in Leadership: Is the female of the species more human than the male?

In recent years, we’ve seen an increase – some might say long overdue – in women entering top positions, bringing a new approach to leadership and complex business situations in a world full of challenge and antagonism. But with a female PM guiding a post-referendum country, a woman coming close to the top job in the USA and more female CEOs on the world stage, has leadership changed in response?

Many believe that men and women lead differently, focusing on different skills and approaches. But is this down to gender, or to a change triggered by necessity when the world has changed and the way we lead must adapt to suit? One area in which people believe women lead differently is in their ‘humanity’ – their ‘soft skills’ approach to managing business.

But is this, perhaps, less to do with being female and more to do with the proven successes of understanding your employees as complex individuals, and of communicating more openly as a way to create more connected, content and committed workers? Carnegie Institute of Technology research showed that 85% of financial success was due to skills in "human engineering", personality, and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead: only 15% was due to technical ability.

What matters is how we approach leadership itself – and how leaders connect with and communicate with their workforce: any assumptions or generalisations – whether based on gender, race, socio-economic background or education – need to be left outside the door. In a world currently facing significant – and, at times, worrying – changes, we need to focus on investing in relationships, personal development, and drawing teams together with shared goals and accomplishments; there is no place for gender stereotypes – either in leaders or in the workforce itself. ASK has created learning programmes tailored specifically to help women face these challenges and lead successfully, overcoming assumptions based on gender and focusing instead on the unique skills each leader brings to the role.