Running head: GENDER AND LEADERSHIP
The Impact of Gender on Leadership
Shayna Cooke
Virginia Commonwealth University
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GENDER AND LEADERSHIP
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The Impact of Gender on Leadership
When looking at the majority of top management positions within companies, mid-size to large,
it is safe to say that men, rather than women, have predominantly managed these organizations.
As a matter of fact, Zenger & Folkman (2011), the authority in strengths-based leadership
development, conducted a research study, sampling 7,280 leaders (64% male and 36% female),
on their leadership effectiveness in 2011. What they found was very interesting. Of the 7.280
individuals in leadership positions at their companies, 78% were male and only 22% were
female. These numbers indicate that there is still a vast gender gap in terms of leadership
positions held by women across the board, from sales and marketing to administrative and
clerical work. However, looking at the leadership effectiveness index on this same population
sample, it was determined that overall, females were rated consistently more positively than
males by the total of all respondents of this survey, from the manager to peers. This data
indicates that while women hold fewer leadership positions within these companies and across
these divisions, the consensus on female leadership is overwhelmingly positive. So, what is it
about female leadership that is so effective? Judy Rosener (1990) believes that women make
more efficient leaders because they tend to characterize their leadership style as transformational,
getting their subordinates or direct reports to transform their own self-interest into the interest of
the group or company and turn their concern outward toward the mission of the organization,
rather than focus on their own personal successes. Wilfred Drath (2001) would label this kind of
leadership as Interpersonal Dominance. Drath (2001) explains that when working from a place of
Interpersonal Dominance, a leader has insight into the vision and the direction of the company
and can motivate people to then become focused on this same mission and vision of the company
through persuasion and shared commitment to the organization. Rosener (1990) calls this
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leadership style interactive leadership because she believes that through this transformational
type of leadership, women work consistently to make their interactions with subordinates or
direct reports positive for everyone. Women do this by encouraging participation in the decision
making process, by sharing power and information amongst the employees collectively rather
than keeping them in the dark, and help by enhancing employee self-worth through positive
meaningful interactions. All of these strategies and interactions help to ignite a passion and sense
of loyalty with personnel, which is beneficial for the employee but also for the organization.
This type of leadership style became more popular as more women began to take on
leadership roles within their organizations. Until the 1960s, it was not common for a woman to
be career oriented and career focused. The expectation of the woman’s role in the family and
society was one that expected women to be wives, mothers, volunteers in the community, nurses
in the medical field, and, school teachers (Rosener, 1990). These roles taught women to be
cooperative and supportive of those around them. To be understanding and gentle when
providing service to other people. This type of gentle leadership and collaboration, according to
Drath (2001), focused on Influence and Dialogue, but rarely reflected Dominance. Through
Influence and Dialogue, women were able to lead through collective collaboration that allowed
women to influence others more than she was influenced and to do that by establishing a gentle
dialogue in shared work.
Rosener (1990) hypothesized that men have always had to appear to be competitive,
strong, decisive and in control, while women have been permitted to work from a place of
collaboration. Drath (2001) would describe this type of leadership for men as Personal
Dominance, where the leader embodies the direction of the company and heavily encourages
others to follow his lead, not through a collaborative effort which focuses on the “why” of the
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organization, but through a commitment to the leader, reflected from this personal dominance
establishment of leadership.
Through the survey, conducted by Zenger & Folkman (2011), it was discovered that the
bias of most people surveyed is that females are more successful at nurturing competencies that
enhance relationship building and the development of other employees. While these
characteristics are not specifically reserved for women, it is more common to see women
working from an interpersonal and relational place that focuses on others, rather than their selves
(Drath, 2001). Interpersonal leadership practice involves negotiating ones influence over others
and the way in which to move the direction of the company forward using this interpersonal
influence. In terms of relational focus, this leadership style focuses on the meaning of the
organization and not only allowing others to see that meaning but to help them to align their
focus in that way as well (Drath, 2001). Figure 1 (below) describes Drath’s (2001) leadership
principles and how they emerge from understanding leadership and putting that understanding
into practice. Drath (2001) established a Personal Dominance Principle which indicates that the
leader embodies direction, inspires commitment, and personally faces adaptive challenges
successfully. This leadership principle rings true with the command and control type of
leadership that is experienced from a top-down or captain type of leadership. Though woman can
most certainly lead from this angle, it is not as common to see women working from a personal
dominance leadership style. Rosener (1990) suggests that women are more successful utilizing a
non-traditional form of leadership such as Interpersonal Dominance as seen on Drath’s figure of
Leadership Principles.
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Figure 1. Drath’s Leadership Principles
Ways of
Understanding
Leadership
Ways
of
Practicing
Leadership
Personal:
Leadership is a personal
endowment of leaders.
Interpersonal:
Leadership is a process of
negotiating social influence
Dominance:
Leadership
happens when a
leader acts
Personal
Dominance
Principle:
The leader
embodies
direction, inspires
commitment, and
personally faces
challenges
The leader has
insight into
direction,
motivates people
to become
committed, and
facilitates the
facing of
challenges.
Influence:
Leadership happens
when a person
influences others
more than he or she is
influenced.
Influence is
recognized as a tool
the leader may use to
gain agreement or
compliance
Dialogue:
Leadership happens
when people make
sense together of
shared work.
Dialogue is
recognized as an
intimate approach to
communication
Dialogue is
Interpersonal
influence: A leader
recognized as
emerges from
perspective taking,
reasoning and
reframing, suspending
negotiating as the
assumptions.
person with the most
influence over
direction, who is thus
best able to gain
commitment and
create conditions for
facing adaptive
challenges.
Relational:
The leader is the
Differences in relative Relational Dialogue
Leadership is meaningcentral participant influence are products Principle: People
making in communities of
in the communal of the communal
sharing work create
practice
construction of
construction of the
leadership by
direction,
meaning of direction, constructing the
commitment, and commitment, and
meaning of direction,
facing adaptive
facing adaptive
commitment, and
challenges.
challenge.
adaptive challenges.
Figure 1. Drath’s Leadership Principles as described in The Deep Blue Sea: Rethinking the
source of leadership.
Interpersonal influence Principle occurs when a leader emerges organically from
collaborative teamwork as the person with the most influence over direction. This person is then
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best able to gain commitment from the team in moving forward (Drath, 2001). Per this
description, it should be noted that both male and female leaders have the ability to work from
this frame and do so successfully.
Drath (2001) suggests that the final Leadership Principle, Relational Dialogue, where
people share work and in turn create leadership by expressing and building on the meaning of
direction and commitment to the team, is rarely attainable by anyone and reserved for the most
enlightened and successful leader.
While these Leadership Principles, supplied by Drath (2001), are succinct and helpful in
determining ones strengths as a leader. Rosener said it best when she said, “the best leadership
style depends on the organization context”(Rosener, 1990, p.125). The best leaders are those that
are fluid in their use of leadership skills, adaptable to a variety of situations, and can modify their
leadership tactics based on the scenario at hand. Though female leaders seem to be more
comfortable, and more common, at working on leadership and management from a
transformational and collaborative approach, this would not always work, depending on the
situation. Just as the personal dominance or top-down approach, most often used by men, will
not work in every situation. As a woman, the Observer also feels more comfortable working
from a place of collaborative and supportive leadership, inspiring from within. When looking at
Figure 1, the Observer identifies most closely with Interpersonal Dominance as her most
comfortable description of leadership, per Drath. But, as noted above, the Observer also must be
able to adjust her style to be reflective of the audience and the situation. To be an effective leader
and have the ability to manage a team successfully, one must be able to read the people and the
situation in which they find themselves and react in a strong and decisive way that suits the
GENDER AND LEADERSHIP
situation but still instills a sense of calm amongst the employees and direct reports. When one
can adapt this type of leadership fluidity, then they can be considered a successful leader.
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References
Drath, W. (2001). The deep blue sea. Rethinking the source of leadership. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass
Rosener, J. (1990). Ways women lead. Harvard Business Review, 119-125.
Zenger & Folkman. (2012). A study in leadership: Women do it better than men. (Strengths
based leadership development). Orem, UT: Retrieved from Zenger Folkman website:
http:// www.zengerfolkman.com