Women Leader muet essay

8/10/2019 Women Leader muet essay

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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 whomtwo-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.)


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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 reallyneed 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.


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Women Make Better Leaders Than Men

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 beinggiven 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, creativityand innovation, forward-looking visionaries and many other characteristics of a good leader. Hence,


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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.

Women Leader muet essay

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