The Five Reasons Why Women Should Lead in the Workplace

Today, driving performance requires bringing out the best in people. We are in an intellectual workplace; manufacturing moved offshore and ended our industrial (make things) age. Today, we provide service - it is a people business. The outdated military-inspired male command-and-control approach to management does not connect with employees; employees don't want to be told what to do. And since they control their thinking and attitudes, they control their performance. Aggravate them and they disconnect. They stop performing. The male method of leadership was effective. Today it is ineffective. This is not a statement about men; it is a statement about the effectiveness of leadership style.
Women are "soft skill" masters; they nurture, care, build unity, focus on relationships and value connection. Women have never been part of the now ineffective "command-and-control" style of leadership; they have always focused on "engage-and-inspire" and "share-and-partner" Today, this is the more effective method of leading that specifically drives intellectual age performance.
Here are the five reasons why women (feminine thinking) should lead at work:
1. Women communicate more effectively because they watch, listen and observe more body language, facial expressions and language nuances than men. They commit more time to the understanding others, using what they know to direct, coach and develop others. This engages employees and they perform.
2. Women are natural consensus-builders. They focus on win-win outcomes which unite and bring people together. Employees see ways to win and build rapport; this activates them to contribute at more inspired levels.
3. Women build communities (families). They are more naturally inspired to find ways to unite, unify and build strong entities. This encourages a greater employee sense of belonging which encourages loyalty and better performance.
4. Women are natural collaborators; they are more aware that the collective contributions of an organization are greater than those by isolated superstars or soloists. This encourages greater employee participation as they are included in more things, own their ideas and see their impact on projects, solutions and results.
5. Women possess an intrinsic ability to connect with others. Their core beliefs value others' emotions, ideas and humanity. People matter. Feelings matter. This emotional connection bonds them with employees; this creates loyalty and inspires commitment and performance.
Leaders must always create their leadership style to activate performance from those they lead. Men led well in the industrial age. Their directing style was focused on winning, competition and control and was well suited to the age. Today, we are in a different age. Today's age calls for the feminization of leaders; today, leaders must be great communicators, consensus-builders, community builders, collaborators and connectors. This is what today's "followers" require. Soft skills drive performance. This is not to say that men are incapable of this. However, based on brain biology, these attributes are more core to female thinking. This kind of thinking drives performance. As women modified their styles to accommodate the male-dominated workplace, men may soon need to do the same to accommodate the more effective feminine leadership approach. Performance dictates leadership style.