Successful organizations in today’s ever-changing world need to have diversity in leadership.
Part one of this three-part series on Women in Leadership explored the idea of the gendered workplace and gave practical strategies for leaders to shift leadership archetypes and overcome implicit bias.
Part two discussed what happens to women leaders over time as a result of the gendered organization and how to foster a more inclusive workplace for all leaders.
After researching women in leadership for my Master of Arts in Executive and Organizational Coaching from Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC, I have some ideas about untangling the gendered workplace to value leadership styles that may not align with the traditional male archetype of leadership. The resulting diversity in leadership has the potential to shift workplaces to become more varied both in thought and cultures.
How Leadership Identity is Shaped
We are all unique, with leadership styles that are complex.
Leadership styles are informed by so many things. These include:
- familial and cultural background
- socioeconomic status
- social groups
- cultural context
- organizational culture
All of these factors shape our personality style, which also affects how we are as leaders. At Padraig, we use various assessments and guides, such as Everything DiSC and EQi2.0, to help our clients understand themselves and their teams better.
When you understand your personality style, you learn what motivates you as well as how you respond to conflict, solve problems and respond to stress. The Everything DiSC assessment shows where you place in one of the four DiSC styles:
- (D)ominance
- (i)nfluence
- (S)teadiness
- (C)onscientiousness
Personality style affects how we approach situations and interact with other people, what we tell ourselves about what’s going on and how we prioritize. There is no better or worse personality style; each has strengths and each can lead to challenges in some situations. Understanding personality styles helps leaders to adapt, tailoring their approach to different people and situations.
(Pro tip: Effective leaders understand how personality styles affect conflict among their team members – helping them lead from unproductive to productive conflict.)
Accepting Diversity in Leadership Styles
The traditional male leadership style has been tied to assertiveness, competitiveness, independent thinking and taking risks. Examples include Authoritative, Transactional or Bureaucratic styles, all of which are less concerned with relationships and collaboration and more interested in compliance and results.
In contrast, the female leadership style has typically been characterized by being highly empathetic to others, collaborative, intuitive and relational. The more female leadership styles are considered to be transformational leadership (inspiring team members to strive to reach a shared vision) or servant leadership (serving their team and organization first – the greater good – rather than their own objectives).
Just as with personality styles, different leadership styles are not wrong or right, better or worse. Each has strengths, so organizations benefit from having diversity in leadership styles at the executive level.
Over the past 20 years, there has been a major shift away from the dominant traditional leadership style to transformational leadership, in which the leader’s personality, traits and ability to lead through example” (Yukl, 1999). Transformational leaders effect change through their influence, attending to the needs of others, collaborating, challenging assumptions, sharing a compelling vision and modelling ethical behaviour.
It isn’t, however, just about having more transformational style leaders. It’s really about broadening leadership in organizations to have diversity in leadership styles to meet the demands of the 21st century.
The Benefits of Having Different Leadership Styles
The connection between women and transformational styles of leadership has the potential for significant benefits to organizations with greater numbers of women in senior level positions. Benefits include increased sales, innovation, greater employee satisfaction and higher motivation, as well as greater awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
We can only achieve diversity in leadership styles when we understand the implicit bias we hold. When we’re conscious of our biases and give opportunities to people with different leadership styles, there are several positive outcomes.
- There are more authentic leaders, with folks who are comfortable with their own leadership identity taking charge of projects or teams.
- There is diverse thought at the leadership table, which informs better decisions as things are viewed through a much larger landscape. A variety of different perspectives can lead to deeper dialogue, better outcomes and even innovation. People will feel valued because they see that what they contribute is honoured.
- Team members will see themselves in the leadership styles, which is as powerful as seeing their background, gender, heritage and culture represented in organizational leadership.
- Different points of view and varied perspectives will be shared more openly, creating space to build stronger teams and encourage healthy, productive conflict to propel success.
Strategies to Help Leaders Grow
Diversity in leadership is one characteristic that future-ready organizations share. It’s as important to driving success in today’s global, ever-changing marketplace as having a diverse workforce.
Having, honouring and understanding diversity in all its facets benefits the organization and the experience of employees. The company wins, and everybody wins.
To accomplish this, give people space to develop their authentic leadership identity and style based on who they are – instead of requiring them to conform to the traditional leadership archetype.
Here are a few ways to help folks grow in confidence and add to their toolkits and create space for
- Build emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies. There is a connection between agility and having a high EQ. Leaders who are skilled at active listening, self-reflection, empathy, objectivity and assertiveness are able to facilitate successful teamwork, encourage a healthy work culture, solve problems deftly and can handle sudden change well.
- Understand and develop cultural intelligence (CQ). With high CQ, leaders can act, react and interact effectively in a culturally diverse setting. There are several ways to develop and enhance CQ, which also helps to foster an inclusive and diverse workplace.
- Create a coaching culture. Learning when and how to use a coach approach with team members boosts productivity, motivates team members to take action (not just direction) and cascades from the top tier down. There’s a reason why organizations with a coaching culture experience success.
- Ensure leadership development opportunities in your organization encourage development of leadership styles based on individual traits, characteristics and cultural influences rather than a prescribed model of leadership. This encourages greater diversity in leadership among all levels of the organization.
- Make it a priority to consider what leadership styles are represented on your senior teams and where there are opportunities to hire people with diverse backgrounds and leadership styles.
Coach’s Questions:
Think of your own leadership style. Are you confident in your leadership identity? Do you surround yourself with colleagues who have different styles than you? Is there currently much diversity in leadership styles in your organization? Why or why not?
Do you encourage others to develop their authentic leadership style? Do you take time to ask what is important to others and how might they manage change or make a decision?
Are you asking yourself, are you only seeing the top of the iceberg and making assumptions about others that may or may not be true?
Do you build teams to have multiple personality and leadership styles?
When was the last time you offered to mentor someone who is developing as a leader?
