Today's women leaders come in all shapes and sizes and have fought to get to where they are. Some work for others and spend their days hitting their heads against the wall as their opinions are dismissed too easily. Some follow their dreams into business ownership and work to change the world one piece at a time only to learn that too often their ideas are not taken seriously. So, what's all this talk about women's leadership if women, no matter what they do, are so often rejected?
First, because women have a lack of resources and need to look elsewhere from the traditional places to move forward, they have found answers that others never have to discover. Now, of course, not every woman is a leader, but those that are get results. They get the job done and almost always find new ways to make it happen.
Some of the greatest characteristics of leadership have been found in women's DNA - compassion, giving, collaboration, and hard work. (Of course, I made this up, but I know that eventually science will uncover these traits in DNA and my theory that women have them predominately over men will be scientifically proven).
Woman vs. male leadership is a topic of discussion that I love due to the fact that the question of morals always seems to raise the decibel of the conversation. Are woman more moral then men? Does leadership require good moral character? Both questions have been debated for generations, yet it is only recently that the traits for strong leaders align with the traits for good morals. Researchers, having done MRI imaging of male and female brains, report females tend to adopt care-based moral evaluations and males tend to adopt justice-based moral evaluations. In other words, when we look at how leaders get to the top the ones that crawl over other people to get their - demonstrating a lack of caring for others - tend to be male.
True leaders know that the end does not justify the means and that abusing others in order to win is not leadership it is bullying.
Good moral character does not mean one must hand over their power to others. It means one explores opportunities where the solution is not someone else's problem.
Women in business and women entrepreneurs are still comparably new to the workplace that has been around for thousands of years. Yet, women's leadership is growing exponentially as the answer to the ills of the world.
Here are the top 5 qualities of women leaders I admire and respect:
(1) Honest - the truth and nothing but the truth no matter how hard it sometimes is to offer.
(2) Committed - willing to be in it for the long haul and do whatever required to get results. (Of course, this means using good moral judgment).
(3) Self Confident - belief in oneself to know the questions and find the answers.
(4) Self Motivated - able to hit the ground running and prepare for others to follow.
(5) Inspiring - able to garner attention and lead the way for followers.
Yes, there are men that have these 5 qualities and shine as leaders. But the road ahead is paved with women and women's leadership is the future.
