Celebrating Women In Business

What are some of the things that make a woman a great leader? Without painting with too broad a brush here, New York based Author and Publisher Joanna L. Krotz sums it up this way, “As we all know, gender differences stem from nurture and nature alike. It’s not only socialization that shapes men and women. It’s also biology. In the past few decades, researchers have discovered physiological variations in the brains of men and women. For example, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains. But women have more nerve cells in certain areas. Women also tend to have a larger corpus collusum – the group of nerve fibres that connects left and right hemispheres. That makes women faster at transferring data between the computational, verbal left half and the intuitive, visual right half. Result: Women are more flexible and find it easier to multitask. Men are usually left-brain oriented. That often makes them better at solving abstract equations and problems.”Women leaders are more collaborative.

‘Women managers tend to have more of a desire to build than a desire to win,’ says Debra Burrell, a psychological social worker and regional training director of the Mars-Venus Institute. ‘Women are more willing to explore compromise and to solicit other people’s opinions.”

“Generally, women delegate more readily and express appreciation more often. Women ask questions, men tend to give answers,” says Terri Levine, a career coach based in North Wales, who often advises entrepreneurs.
Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer at media company the Elle Group, describes her management style this way, “I feel I’m a leader without ever really thinking I’m a leader, which is to say that I know when I walk into a room of employees, I command a presence, but I’m always feeling like I’m part of the gang. I don’t instantly sit at the head of the table. I sit in the middle of the table, always. I don’t want to sit at the head of the table. I want to be part of the process and part of the decision.”

How does one of the most powerful women in Australia believe in managing teams for greater outcomes?
Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly recently said “If you give an individual a sense of accountability to shape their own work life, their productivity shoots up.”

Sensitivity to the needs of a situation is also a trait that can help.

Although some may argue that fighting fire with fire in a male-dominated environment is the only way to go BBC reporter Shaimaa Khalil recently explained the need for respectful interaction, albeit in a culturally specific situation, in this way, “The fastest way to make enemies in a male-dominated environment – Afghanistan or the Middle East for example – is to be aggressive. What we may regard in the West as normal assertive behaviour may be seen as disrespect for authority – in most cases here, authority means “male authority”. When you show respect for authority you gain allies. When I was held for 20 hours by the Egyptian military, merely for being present at a demonstration, I took care to address my captors respectfully and my experience was a lot better than it could have been.”

But perhaps Carol Smith summed it up best when she said, “I will say that working for all women is just as bad as working for all men. I hate an office where there aren’t men and women together. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Men and women together is the best.”

Quotes
A woman can say more in a sigh than a man can say in a sermon. ~Arnold Haultain
I have an idea that the phrase “weaker sex” was coined by some woman to disarm some man she was preparing to overwhelm. ~Ogden Nash
One is not born a woman, one becomes one. ~Simone de Beauvoir
Women speak two languages – one of which is verbal. ~William Shakespeare
The people I’m furious with are the women’s liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming women are brighter than men. That’s true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket. ~Anita Loos
Women are like teabags. We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water! – Eleanor Roosevelt
Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad. – Fyodor Dostoevsky
I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce. – Margaret Mead
I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity. – Michelle Obama