Kylie Bains looks at the leadership skills required in today’s workplace and asks whether the style of female leaders makes them better suited to leading through crisis?

What are the differences between male and female leadership styles? The debate about which sex is better suited to leading has existed for a very long time. But in today’s complex world, do these age old differences still ring true and if so, how relevant are they in the current climate?

As business psychologists, when we rate executives on a leadership framework in areas such as strategic framing and commercial judgment, for example, statistically significant data indicates that men out perform women, especially in the younger generation.  But how is this so? At school and university there is empirical evidence that females out perform their male counterparts.

Confidence

Definitive answers should be avoided as this will always be a hotly debated and quite subjective issue. However, in my 20 years as a business psychologist – there are generalisations that can be made. One of these is that men are far more confident, especially at the beginning of their career, than women. Whilst I would not go so far as to say they are better able to mislead, it is true to say that even if they have quite limited experience in a certain area, they are far more confident at pushing their credentials and focusing on what they can and have done, rather than focusing on what they have not or the skills gaps they may have.

Further research we have conducted shows that – in the senior executive population in which we primarily work – women are more promotable than men and they have more potential. We have noticed a statistically significant difference between the men and women we have assessed. One of the likely reasons for this is the over-promotion of men in their early careers.

Drive

So yes, it’s fair to say that men and women continue to have different leadership styles, strengths and weaknesses. But are women better able to lead in the current climate? Is their skill set more aligned to succeed in these difficult times? I would suggest – yes. The light at the end of the tunnel of this global downturn will not be reached by a sprint – but by a marathon. One of the key findings our researchers made when crunching our assessment data was that women are more driven than men – especially as their career develops and they assume more senior roles (most noticeable in the 40-49 age bracket).

We have also observed that women demonstrate more influence than men. This is critical in the current climate because as organisations face the downturn head-on, many having to make substantial cut-backs along the way, influencing skills are no longer simply desirable – they are now business critical. Leaders need to build an emotional connection with their workforce and other stakeholders in order to keep them motivated and on track. In this regard, leaders need to be ever more visible in order to rebuild trust, keep up morale and provide a clear sense of direction.

Dominance

Dr Mark Batey, Manchester Business School, says: "Women are going to be dominant in the professions over the next decade. Employers realise that women are more suited to the modern workplace, where the emphasis is on the qualities of team-work, leadership skills, communication and emotional intelligence in which they excel – rather than the intellectual ability or physical strength on which men have relied."

There are now more women in leadership positions than 10 or 20 years ago, and research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Women in the boardroom: The risks of being at the top, suggests that business leaders are more inclined to open up job opportunities to women in crisis situations.

The higher drive, greater influence and better communication skills of women make them natural leaders in the current climate.

Kylie Bains is director of business psychologists, YSC.