Great new article from The Maria Shriver Project, “You Do You: Why Women In Leadership Should Just Be Themselves”
Women have been told for years to act and behave a certain way if they want to make their way to the corner office. In studying women who have reached senior level positions, this report identifies qualities that actually help women become great leaders.
“The broader message to women seems to be that they are simply not acting the part, and it’s the “acting” side of this which Barbara Annis — a gender intelligence expert and the Chair Emeritus of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard Kennedy School — sees as problematic.
The women I see succeeding bring their whole self to it,” says Annis. “They’re empowered, and they’re driven by their values. The key is really to be authentic.”
For Annis, successful female leadership is about women who have broken the glass ceiling by being themselves, rather than those who have made strides by adopting male behaviors. Her point is that by emulating the male style, women trade away their greatest strengths, which is their own unique and valuable skills and qualities.
“Women bring tremendous executive social skills that increase team work and move away from the hierarchical command and control model where power is viewed as rank and status. Women tend to work in a much more egalitarian, team-like way. So, they bring out the best in employees but they also encourage a high level of social skill in terms of being self-aware and being aware of the health of the team or division.
Women also have expansive thinking, which has to do with the hard-wiring of the brain; they use web-like thinking and they expand strategy into a longer term view. They bring new ideas and innovative thinking, because, again, women see different possibilities. There’s also a lot of conversation now about the value of empathy and collaboration, and that is something which is just innate for women, it’s part of the hard-wiring but it’s also part of how we’re socialized.” Read more of this article here.
One of the key characteristics The Executive Presence Group has identified for aspiring leaders, is Authenticity. Have a look at the Roadmap to the C-Suite for more information on the 10 key characteristics for executive presence.
