STRATEGY More: Women And Leadership CEOs

Why Women Are More Effective Leaders Than Men

BOB SHERWIN, CONTRIBUTOR
JAN. 24, 2014, 1:22 PM 41,648 10
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GM CEO Mary Barra
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GM CEO Mary Barra


In a three-part series for Business Insider, Sherwin, the COO of leadership consultancy Zenger
Folkman, examines women's leadership effectiveness, representation in corporate America, and
solutions for increasing their ranks, building upon the firm's research first published in a 2012
Harvard Business Review article.
In today's large organization, as women climb up the corporate ladder they vanish. While the
statistics vary slightly around the world, this is an extremely consistent pattern.

At the lowest levels, more than half of the employees in organizations are female. As you move to
each successively higher level in the organization, the number of women steadily shrinks. At the CEO
level, worldwide, there are only 3% to 4% who are women.

women in workforce chart
Zenger Folkman
We find this to be a puzzling, even mysterious phenomenon when you examine the hard data that
describes the overall success that women have when placed in successively higher leadership
positions. It is even more curious when you analyze the success they have in those functional areas
that have traditionally been dominated by males.

For more than a decade, our organization has been collecting 360 feedback data from leading
organizations worldwide. We now have 450,000 feedback instruments pertaining to about 45,000
leaders, covering a wide variety of industries. The studies that follow include our most current data
collected in 2011 and 2012. The sample we have used includes just under 16,000 leaders of whom
two-thirds were male and one-third female. Each participant had on average 13 respondents,
including their manager, their direct reports and their peers.

Overall effectiveness
An aggregate look at how women leaders compared to their male counterparts shows the following.

leadership chart
Zenger Folkman
Because of the large sample size for this study the difference shown here is statistically significant
and does not occur by chance.
Differences by Age
To better understand the differences between males and females it is instructive to look at overall
leadership effectiveness by age. The effectiveness of women as leaders appears to change over time.
As women and men begin their careers there is very little perceived difference. Then men soon are
perceived to be slightly more effective than women. As women mature they are perceived in an
increasingly positive way and more effecting than their male counterparts.

The gap between them and men continues to diverge, until they reach their 60s, when the gap
begins to narrow. At its peak the largest difference between males and females is 9 percentile points.
The following graph shows the average percentile gap between males and females.

males females leadership effectiveness
Zenger Folkman
What Causes the Difference
What do women do that creates this difference in leadership effectiveness? One of the clues for us
came from talking with women about this research. When we ask them to explain why women were
perceived as more effective, what we frequently heard was, In order to get the same recognition
and rewards, I need to do twice as much, never make a mistake and constantly demonstrate my
competence. (The shorter version of what we regularly heard from women was that we must
perform twice as well to be thought half as good.)

When we looked at our data on males and females, we looked at results from a competency called
Practicing Self Development. This competency measures the extent to which people ask for
feedback and make changes based on that feedback. We know that as most people begin their
career they are very motivated to ask for feedback and take actions to improve. Over time most
people gain competence and tend to not ask for feedback as often.

age chart
Zenger Folkman
This graph shows percentile scores from men and women on the competency of practicing self
development.
Note that the results are fairly similar until about 40 years of age. At that point women maintain the
habit of asking for feedback and taking action to improve. Note that the effectiveness of men on this
competency continues to decline as they age. Men assume that they are doing fine and dont really
need much feedback.

Differences by competency
Our standard 360-degree feedback instrument measures 16 competencies. A comparison of how
women and men are perceived in terms of these specific competencies shows the following:

competencies chart
Zenger Folkman
The chart above shows the differences between men and women and has arrayed them in
descending order. It confirms that women actually scored higher than men on 12 of the 16
competencies. The differences on ten of them were statistically significant. Men scored higher on
two competencies, "develops strategic perspective" and technical or professional expertise.
Note the large difference on the first competency, Takes Initiative. Each reader will probably have
some theory as to why this is so. Our explanation gravitates toward the double duty, which many
women live with that necessitates them getting things done in order to survive.

Females and Nurturing Competencies
The majority of people we talk with make the assumption that women will excel at nurturing
competencies such as developing others, inspiring and motivating others, relationship building,
collaboration and teamwork. The chart above demonstrates that these competencies are more
positive for women. But those competencies with the largest positive differences are taking initiative,
displaying integrity and honesty, and driving for results. These are not nurturing competencies.

These competencies highlight that women were seen as more effective in getting things done, being
role models and delivering results. These skills describe leaders who take on difficult challenges,
ensure that people act with integrity, and who simply achieve challenging results.

Differences by function
Our current fact pattern becomes even more intriguing when we analyzed various functional areas
within an organization. Here is what the data showed:

functional area competencies chart
Zenger Folkman
We found it interesting that in the traditional male bastions of sales, legal, engineering, IT and the
R&D function; women actually received higher effectiveness ratings than males. Many of our
stereotypes are obviously incorrect. Again, the concern about women not being able to perform well
in those functional areas is resoundingly refuted by the data. Only in facilities management and
maintenance do they not do well.
Differences by level in the organization
Finally, as women move up the ladder in an organization, the higher they move the more positively
they are perceived.

management chart
Zenger Folkman
To the degree that senior executives and boards of directors are putting men into senior positions,
fearing that women will not perform well at higher levels, we hope that this information adds to the
assurance that they need not worry about that.
Bob Sherwin is the chief operating officer of Zenger Folkman, a provider of leadership research,
assessment, development and implementation programs.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/study-women-are-better-leaders-2014-
1#ixzz38gEORUnb

Women Make Better Leaders Than Men

The debate between the supremacy of the genders have been in session since time immemorial. In
the past, it would seem that men had the upperhand but these days, women are starting to leave
their mark in many aspects from business to politics rather than just domestic affairs. In my humble
opinion, both men and women have the potential to be great leaders but the question of 'better
leaders' does not lie in a person's gender alone but his or her innate character. In this essay, let us
explore the qualities that make men and women great leaders before focusing on other factors that
are unrelated to gender.

First and foremost, men have some distinctive qualities that make them far better leaders than
women. We can attribute this to the fact that men are generally physically stronger than women.
This is undeniable because a man has clearly more muscle mass than a woman so in terms of
leadership that has to do with physical ability, men win hands down. For example, in the army, most
leaders are men that are buffed up and better able to handle the physical exertions of this field
compared to women who are more delicate in structure. Men are also known to have better ability
to strategise in terms of warfare and they seem to command their armies better. For example, great
leaders have been men such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Hitler and so on. Moreover,
men tend to be able to make quick decisions that are not usually based on their emotions but logical,
rational and practical reasons. Women, however, seem to be very emotional creatures so they may
make poor leadership decisions if they simply follow their feelings. Therefore, men have many
qualities like physical strength, ability to strategise well and make snap decisions which can make
them better leaders.

However, women have proven to be better leaders in an increasing number of cases. This can be
seen as more and more countries have entrusted women to be their leaders. These women have a
more 'feminine' approach to leadership which is more sensitive towards the needs of society. For
instance, history is peppered with exemplary female leaders such as Indira Ghandi, Benazir Bhutto,
Eva Peron and present day heroines such as Aung San Suu Kyi. Women tend to be more caring in
nature and quite patient in dealing with problems which makes them better leaders compared to
men who could be less sensitive and impatient. Most women are also known to be perfectionists,
and this is an advantage because they are often very meticulous and detailed in carrying out their
duties as leaders. Thus, with a more open-minded society, an increasing number of women are being
given the onus to take the lead and may even one day supersede men in their traditional leadership
roles!

Although I have gone to great lengths to show that both men and women have the ability to be
great leaders, I still completely believe that 'leadership' has little to do with gender and a lot to do
with a person's innate character. This means that to be a great leader does not depend on whether
you are male or female but rather your personal characteristics that drive you to succeed. Men and
women both possess the qualities of confidence, responsibility, time management and delegation
skills, public relations and good communication skills, positive outlook, high commitment, creativity
and innovation, forward-looking visionaries and many other characteristics of a good leader. Hence,
the question of gender should not arise because being male or female does not guarantee the ability
to lead well.

In conclusion, history has shown that men make better leaders but this is a faulty argument because
it does not take into consideration the fact in the old days women were discriminated against and
not allowed to lead. Today, society is more open-minded and more women are taking the helm and
proving that women can be better leaders. Nevertheless, leadership to me is 'genderless' whereby it
is completely dependent on a person's positive characteristics which makes people respect them
and want to follow in their footsteps. Every country needs more leaders regardless of gender so the
government should conduct more self-improvement leadership courses for the younger generation
so they may become better future leaders of our country.