Why Women Make the Best Leaders
Working my way through college, I juggled several part-time jobs as a photojournalist. I like to say that I worked for nine newspapers and started a tenth to try and knock the others out of business, which is only a slight exaggeration.
Most of my editors were the classic J. Jonah Jameson types from Spiderman who seemed to yell and scream all the time about everything. I realized it was a high-stress job but geez. I don’t remember them ever giving anyone a compliment; some lied, stole, and cheated me out of pay. I promised myself I wouldn’t work for anyone like that again.
When I got my first full-time job, at the University of Detroit Library, the all-women leadership team was a breath of fresh air. They went out of their way to assist with my professional growth and genuinely cared about my personal life. They were kind and considerate to everyone. I wanted to do the best job I could for them. Decades later, I still consider the Dean of Libraries a friend and mentor.
Once I got into a bit of trouble for a memo I wrote about not having a choice in offset printer selection. I thought it was too subtle for anyone to notice, but in it I did imply that the VP of Marketing was unethical and playing favorites by forcing everyone to use a particular printer. Well, he inferred correctly, and then called the Dean, yelling and screaming at her about my memo. She could have in turn yelled and screamed or even fired me, as he strongly suggested. Instead, she calmly called me to her office where she calmly explained the error of my ways and made it a teachable moment, which I appreciate to this day. I still slide subtle accusations into emails now and then, but I’m much better at it now.
In the many years since that first job I have worked for a few good guys and a few awful women, but many more women have reinforced my belief, as decades of studies have shown, that they make better leaders.
I have read many books and taken many courses on leadership, especially related to what I call the crossroads of communication and leadership. There are endless schools of thought on leadership but my favorite is one from the top communication and leadership consulting firms anywhere, CRA.
Putting it as succinctly as possible, most leaders are either results-driven or followership-driven. I definitely lean toward followership- or loyalty-driven and am proud that two of my employees from Borders Books came to work for me again when I landed at the University of Michigan – one of them for a total of 20 years.
And, there’s also a third category of leader: the admired leader, which is the perfect mix of both styles and something we should all aspire to.
Based on what I’ve experienced and learned over the years, men tend to be more results-driven but don’t treat people well in the process, while women tend to be more followership-driven because they care more about people as people with lives outside of work, and tend to be more compassionate and empathetic.
Further, I believe that women are more likely to become admired leaders than men, since it’s easier to get great results by treating people well than it is to foster loyalty when failing to value someone’s talents or help them grow in the areas they love most.
There is obviously much more nuance to leadership that I will cover in more depth in future posts and courses as it relates to communication, but know that I admire and appreciate the contributions women make as leaders.
