There is a myth that men lead with their head and women lead with their heart and that the focus on emotions gets women leaders in trouble. The facts prove that just the opposite is true. The ability to be intuitive and tap into the feelings of those you are working with allows leaders to better guide the results of their teams.

Trouble evolves only if and when the leader puts the emotional status ahead of the intelligent goals. For example, women leaders often decide to partner with family, friends or friends of family due to the need of that individual to get employment. Of course, the decision to partner with any one should be based solely on the intelligence of the situation. Does this individual bring you strengths that you need in your business? Does this individual add value to your business model and value to your bottom line. If your strength is marketing and sales, does hiring this individual shore up operations? These are questions for your head not your heart.

As a business coach, I enable entrepreneurs to understand the complexities of leading with their hearts and minds. Often there is a fine line between the two. Business can be very emotional at times and the decisions a small business owner makes must be carefully weighed.

Leading too much from the heart and obsessing over feelings and emotions of staff, customers, vendors and self never wins. However, leading only with your head misses the opportunities that present themselves when others need to be listened to by a caring heart.

Women leaders must demonstrate their ability to listen, care, digest information and then execute decisions based on what's best for the business. A quick and easy exercise to make sure you are doing this effectively is to get a pad of paper, draw a line down the middle, write head on one side of the paper and heart on the other. At the top write what the issue is you need to decide. Make the list of what is in your head and what is in your heart. Now put the paper down and get back to work.

Don't pick that paper up for at least an hour. Before the end of the day, pick that pad up and look it over again. You'll find that several of the things you listed under heart have now changed. Most of the head list will remain. After striking out the things you've changed and prioritizing the items left you are ready to make your decision.

Strong leaders recognize the need to carefully monitor the emotional with the intelligence of themselves and their organizations. Keep listening to your heart and your head.