0 Bewertungen0% fanden dieses Dokument nützlich (0 Abstimmungen)
118 Ansichten6 Seiten
Women are more effective leaders than men according to research data from over 450,000 leadership evaluations. The data shows that women scored higher than men in 12 out of 16 measured competencies, including taking initiative and driving results. As women progress to higher levels in organizations, they are perceived as even more effective leaders. Additionally, women receive higher effectiveness ratings than men even in traditionally male-dominated fields like engineering and IT. While initial stereotypes assumed women would excel at "nurturing" skills, the data shows women outperform men at competencies involved with getting things done and achieving results.
Women are more effective leaders than men according to research data from over 450,000 leadership evaluations. The data shows that women scored higher than men in 12 out of 16 measured competencies, including taking initiative and driving results. As women progress to higher levels in organizations, they are perceived as even more effective leaders. Additionally, women receive higher effectiveness ratings than men even in traditionally male-dominated fields like engineering and IT. While initial stereotypes assumed women would excel at "nurturing" skills, the data shows women outperform men at competencies involved with getting things done and achieving results.
Women are more effective leaders than men according to research data from over 450,000 leadership evaluations. The data shows that women scored higher than men in 12 out of 16 measured competencies, including taking initiative and driving results. As women progress to higher levels in organizations, they are perceived as even more effective leaders. Additionally, women receive higher effectiveness ratings than men even in traditionally male-dominated fields like engineering and IT. While initial stereotypes assumed women would excel at "nurturing" skills, the data shows women outperform men at competencies involved with getting things done and achieving results.
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.
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.
(Mathematical Modelling - Theory and Applications 10) C. Rocşoreanu, A. Georgescu, N. Giurgiţeanu (Auth.) - The FitzHugh-Nagumo Model - Bifurcation and Dynamics-Springer Netherlands (2000)