Women’s Natural Leadership Talents
I received a lot of mail asking me what I meant by women educating themselves about the power of the Feminine Leadership qualities and Feminine energy.
To answer it best I would like to refer to Helen E. Fisher article in ‘Enlightened Power’ book called “The Natural Leadership Talents of Women� (Jossey-Bass, 2005)
“For millions of years, men and women did different jobs, tasks that required different skills. As natural selection weeded out less able workers, time carved differences in the male and female brain. Countless cultural forces influence how men and women think and act. And each one of us is an elaborate mix of both male and female traits. Yet, on average, each sex has its own range of abilities; each is a living archive of its distinctive past.�
However, let me stress that these talents are not exclusive to women; yet, women display them more regularly than men due to thousands of years of cultural conditioning and biology development.
“One remarkable difference is the way that men and women tend to think, they gather details somewhat differently than men. Women integrate more details faster and arrange these bits of data into more complex patterns… Women tend to generalize, to synthesize, to take a broader, more holistic, more contextual perspective of any issue. They tend to think in webs of factors, not straight lines – the Feminine way of reasoning is: web thinking.
Men are more likely to focus their attention on one thing at a time. They tend to compartmentalize relevant material, discard what they regard as extraneous data, and analyze information in a more linear, casual path. This is “step thinking�
The female brain has more nerve cables connecting the two brain hemispheres; the male brain is more compartmentalized so sections operate more independently. Moreover, testerone tends to focus one’s attention. Women’s lower levels of this hormone may contribute to their broader, more contextual view.
Women’s web thinking allows them to become better at being able to tolerate ambiguity – a trait that most likely stems from their ability to hold several things simultaneously in mind. Modern business environment can be sum up in one word to being ambiguous and therefore women are better equipped to handle it.
Also related to web thinking is long-term planning – the ability to assess multiple, complex scenarios and plot long-term course. It is possible that women’s hormonal make-up contributes to their tendency to plan long term. Women may have evolved to propensity to think long term to plan for their children’s distant future. Today, however, this faculty predisposes women to see business issues from a longer perspective – an essential element of visionary leadership.
Women’s brain architecture for web thinking has endowed them with another natural talent – mental flexibility. Mental flexibility is an essential trait of leadership in our dynamic global economy.
Yet another aspect of women’s web thinking is – imagination. Imagination is the capacity to reach into the depth of one’s stored knowledge, assemble chunks of data in new ways, examine these myriad combinations and “suppose� how various arrangements might play out. As John F. Kennedy once said: “We need men who can dream of things that never were�. We need the female mind as well.
The article goes on and describes more qualities that the female brain has that is essential for today changing leadership needs. The end conclusion is summed up by Albert Einstein quote: “The significant problems we face today cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them�.
Women bring a different way of thinking that; a cooperative spirit; a gift for “reading� people; patience; empathy; networking abilities; negotiating skills; a drive to nurture children; kin, business connections nd the local world community; an interest in ethnic diversity and education; a keen imagination; a win-win attitude; mental flexibility; an ability to embrace ambiguity; and the predisposition to examine complex social environmental, and political issues with a broad, contextual, long-term view. As the female mind becomes unleashed on our modern world, societies will benefit – even in lands where it is currently shackled.�
All these are the reasons why we should first free our own mind. We as women should learn more about those qualities and start taking pride in them, cultivating and giving them expression in our lives will allow us to take the leadership position in life as we deserve it.
Have a great day!
