Throughout the duration of your career so far, what has been the most prevalent structure? Have you reported to a man or a woman – and how was each experience? While it’s different for all of us, I think many of us can agree – reporting to a woman is often a pretty great experience. No matter who you report to, everyone has their idiosyncrasies, but often times a female supervisor has qualities that make her more approachable and solution-oriented – and that can make work a pretty great place to be. Turns out, that’s because women make pretty phenomenal leaders, wouldn’t you agree? And, the list of amazingly successful female leaders just keeps on growing. From the small business owners out there building from the ground up to the female CEO’s who are changing the face of the business world, here’s a look at why women are often better leaders than men.
Women are pretty great at communicating. Over communication can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming (too many emails and such), but at the end of the day – that’s so much better than not knowing where you stand. Women do an incredible job at making sure everyone on the team is aware of the plan and knows what he or she is responsible for, while men often lack that ability to connect the communication dots. It seems often times, male leaders simply forge ahead, while females take the time to talk it through, align the details and make sure everyone is one board to move forward.
Women have a high threshold for patience. This might just be the nature of how much women typically take on – often juggling fast-paced careers while also being moms to multiple children – but women are pretty patient people. In a business atmosphere things and approvals can take time – it’s the nature of the environment – and typically women will ride that out. Leading by example in this case is a pretty incredible skill to pass down, as slow and steady often wins the race.
You can feel the passion and energy that’s driving many female leaders and it’s contagious. If you want to get fired up about something or you want to jump on the train that’s activating some real excitement around a project or an initiative, female leadership makes that possible. You can often feel their excitement for something and suddenly every part of you wants to be along for that ride too. The energy, enthusiasm and drive is incredible.
Many women have had to fight a long battle to get to where they are today and you better believe they aren’t going to let that passion and drive fade anytime soon. If there’s an opportunity to work with female leadership – it won’t be easy – but with high risk often comes very high reward. Have you worked in a female led environment? How was the experience for you?
