Women Make Better Managers
As we all know, gender differences stem from nurture and nature alike. It’s not only socialization that shapes men and women. It’s also biology.
In the past few decades, researchers have discovered physiological variations in the brains of men and women. For example, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains. But women have more nerve cells in certain areas. Women also tend to have a larger corpus collusum — the group of nerve fibers that connects left and right hemispheres. That makes women faster at transferring data between the computational, verbal left half and the intuitive, visual right half. Result: Women are more flexible and find it easier to multitask. Men are usually left-brain oriented. That often makes them better at solving abstract equations and problems.
As girls and boys grow up, of course, they’re also molded by differing sets of social rules and expectations. Gender obviously colors behavior, perception, and just about everything else.
Biology, upbringing make women more flexible
As we all know, gender differences stem from nurture and nature alike. It’s not only socialization that shapes men and women. It’s also biology.
In the past few decades, researchers have discovered physiological variations in the brains of men and women. For example, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains. But women have more nerve cells in certain areas. Women also tend to have a larger corpus collusum — the group of nerve fibers that connects left and right hemispheres. That makes women faster at transferring data between the computational, verbal left half and the intuitive, visual right half. Result: Women are more flexible and find it easier to multitask. Men are usually left-brain oriented. That often makes them better at solving abstract equations and problems.
As girls and boys grow up, of course, they’re also molded by differing sets of social rules and expectations. Gender obviously colors behavior, perception, and just about everything else.
Women exhibit these leadership strengths
Typically, when comparing managers, the dialogue is framed as men’s command-and-control style versus women’s team-building or consensus approach.
‘Women managers tend to have more of a desire to build than a desire to win,’ says Debra Burrell, a psychological social worker and regional training director of the Mars-Venus Institute in New York. ‘Women are more willing to explore compromise and to solicit other people’s opinions.’ By contrast, men often think if they ask other people for advice, they’ll be perceived as unsure or as a leader who doesn’t have answers, according to Burrell.
Other female leadership strengths:
- Women tend to be better than men at empowering staff.
- Women encourage openness and are more accessible.
- Women leaders respond more quickly to calls for assistance.
- Women are more tolerant of differences, so they’re more skilled at managing diversity.
- Women identify problems more quickly and more accurately.
- Women are better at defining job expectations and providing feedback.
On the other hand, men tend to be more confident and faster decision-makers compared to women. Male managers are also more adept at forming ‘navigational relationships,’ that is, temporary teams set up to achieve short-term goals, says management psychologist Ken Siegel, whose Los Angeles firm, the Impact Group, works with executives to develop leadership.
What about ‘hard skills’ and analysis?
Big deal, right? So women typically outperform men at communications and interpersonal skills, which is far from a news flash. You’re probably thinking: Those are ‘soft skills,’ not the hard tools and analysis required to grow a business.
How do such ‘female’ traits translate into better business management?
In today’s workplace, when employees juggle multiple jobs, and technology enables even the smallest businesses to compete in global marketplaces, the ability to make staff feel charged up and valued is a definite competitive edge.
‘Some companies succeed while others don’t,’ says Jeffrey Christian, chairman of Christian & Timbers, a Cleveland-based executive search firm. ‘It’s not about production, it’s about talent. Whoever has the best team wins.’
Money is not the primary reason talented people stay on the job or jump. Rather, they stay predominantly because of relationships. ‘Women get that,’ says Christian, whose firm placed Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard, among other high-level hires.
Generally, women delegate more readily and express appreciation more often. ‘Women ask questions, men tend to give answers,’ says Terri Levine, a career coach based in North Wales, Pa., who often advises entrepreneurs.
By communicating goals more readily and expressing appreciation more often, women tend to be better at making staffers feel recognized and rewarded. That translates into cost-effective staffing and recruiting.