{"id":4567,"date":"2022-11-22T08:50:16","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T12:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humannet.cl\/?p=4567"},"modified":"2022-11-22T09:59:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T13:59:19","slug":"how-businesses-benefit-when-women-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humannet.cl\/how-businesses-benefit-when-women-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"How Businesses Benefit When Women Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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How specifically are things different when women lead organizations, whether those organizations are companies or entire nations?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the question at the core of When Women Lead<\/em><\/strong>, a new book by Julia Boorstin, a senior media and tech correspondent and reporter at CNBC.<\/p>\n

Among the attributes she identifies is \u201cservant leadership.\u201d That\u2019s the management approach emphasizing humility, low ego, and close collaboration with others. It\u2019s a potentially fraught contention: Do we really need to signal to professional women that we expect them to care a lot about serving others? Hasn\u2019t widespread criticism of Lean In demonstrated that expecting more work by women on our own behalf didn\u2019t adequately acknowledge the need for structural change as well?<\/p>\n

But Boorstin convincingly makes the case that servant leadership builds authority in leaders and employee trust in organizations. She explains that when executives who practice servant leadership \u201cprioritize and empower employees, the employees\u2019 performance improves.\u201d (p.67) Men also employ servant leadership, and it\u2019s advantageous to them in the workplace, too. Yet benefits in employee performance are strongest<\/strong> when women leaders implement this approach, and when servant leaders guide female-populated teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone, male or female, can reap the benefits of the stereotypically female way of managing teams,\u201d Boorstin writes. \u201cThough a managerial style focused on communal leadership may be associated with women, men and women should both embrace it. And if a challenge to established practices causes a bit of discomfort, well, that means it\u2019s working.\u201d (p. 137)<\/p>\n

What else is different when women lead? Boorstin cites many strengths that haven\u2019t historically been associated with powerful leadership \u201cfor the simple reason that it is women who most often exhibit them.\u201d (p. 16) These include bringing varied perspectives into decision making. Women are also more likely to lead with an attitude of abundance and learning agility, she writes. In addition, research finds that they are more likely to exhibit greater accuracy in assessing their own abilities; prioritize social and environmental goals in addition to profitability; and express gratitude for their access and opportunities. \u201cOne thing these women (and reams of academic research) have shown me is that it\u2019s not that female leadership is necessarily better than male leadership,\u201d Boorstin writes. \u201cRather, it\u2019s that companies whose values and priorities are more evolved and inclusive tend to have female leaders.\u201d (p. 232)<\/p>\n

When Women Lead<\/em><\/strong> doesn\u2019t downplay the extreme challenges that these CEOs and entrepreneurs face. At the time of publication, there were only two Black female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. Women are 63% more likely to be recruited into leadership roles that are already unstable (a phenomenon known as the \u201cglass cliff\u201d) and to be fired from their leadership roles, regardless of whether a company is doing poorly or well. Women leaders are more likely than their male counterparts to be sexually harassed, including by prospective investors, and to be trolled online.<\/p>\n

Many of the leaders featured in the book have been praised for running capital-light organizations, sometimes against their wishes. Companies with solely female founders received less than 3% of all venture capital dollars globally between 2011 and 2020 (and even less during the pandemic), despite the number of women-owned businesses growing faster than business growth overall. (The statistics were even more dismal for Black and Latinx women CEOs, who received 0.4% of VC investment in 2020.) \u201cWhen those few female entrepreneurs do successfully raise venture funding,\u201d Boorstin writes, \u201cthey generally raise less than half as much as their male counterparts.\u201d (p. 11)<\/p>\n

The book is realistic about lack of representation and troublesome standards while also, thankfully, offering approaches worth trying. Among them:<\/p>\n