By: Ms. Kamla Mungal - Director, Academic Development and Accreditation, Lok Jack GSB
Women are natural leaders; at least they appear to have some innate psychological characteristics that result in behaviours such as selflessness and caring that are typically encapsulated in the conception of feminine.Suggestions of a gendered difference that impacts leadership is perhaps better explained by sociological rather than psychological or trait characteristics. Yet, it appears that all persons, whether male or female, are only able to unleash their leadership potential in so far as they know themselves.Leadership is a paradoxical phenomenon when we consider the process and outcomes of learning how to lead. It is an intensely personal journey of learning through self-reflection and retreat but what we learn about ourselves becomes reflected in our enduring leadership behaviours in social networks.
These social networks include our family, communities, places of work and any spaces in which we interact with others. What behaviours are reflective of good leadership? Early researchers focused on understanding leadership as an individual phenomenon and postulated that good leaders shared certain physical and personality traits. It was thought, for example, that good leaders were charismatic, assertive and perhaps taller than most! These characteristics were typically ascribed to males and gender as a physical trait was considered as a critical factor in leadership, prompting the emergence of studies that highlighted the differences in behaviours of male and female leaders. Later research focused on the organisational outcomes and it was suggested that good leaders were able to move beyond transacting behaviours in a 'give and take' arrangement to motivate the transformation of organisations and produce enhanced outcomes for people and the organisations where they work. Women were found to demonstrate more participative, democratic and transformational leadership behaviours (Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001) and this led many to propose that if you want a great Executive, hire a female!
More recent theories of leadership or 'postheroic' leadership suggest it is a relational phenomenon (Fletcher, 2004) that must consider how gender and power impact the relationship. From this perspective, it appears that cultural differences in gender relations impact leadership performance and leaders must understand how this moderates their communication and relationships. This journey of understanding starts and ends with knowing oneself. In the middle, knowledge of society and the forces that impact relationships bring further power to the developing leader. It is by knowing how gender differences produce differential outcomes in social contexts that we can actively re-create a new leadership opportunity for both males and females. If we accept the process of leadership development is a personal journey, it follows that women, like others, hold the potential for leadership, when they are able to examine themselves to inspire others in any relationship.
