The reading assignment for this unit included reading several articles and one book in particular, The Female Advantage, by Sally Helgesen as an introduction into varying leadership styles. Leadership, as a honed craft is practiced continually in different ways and varying circumstances, no two individuals will have the same leadership style. Certain distinctive traits brought into the forum and on display for followers to observe. Some traits can be visible, clothing or skin color as examples, others, however, are not as visible such as upbringing or family situation. Each of these factors could play a role in the leadership style of a leader. One trait that the author of the book uses to distinguish leaders is gender. As much as men and women must be treated the fairly and equally, it cannot be denied that outside of the biological aspect, men and women are slightly different. Each gender brings a unique approach to leadership situations.
In the book, Sally Helgesen cites the “Feminine Principles” brought forth by Anita Roddick, who is the founder of The Body Shop as basic principles that could help to distinguish, or rather help to further define men and women leaders. The principles include, caring, making intuitive decisions, not getting hung up on hierarchy, having a sense of work being part of your life, putting labor where your love is, being responsible to the world and knowing that the bottom line should not be the only driving factor. These are the principles that encompass the “feminine principles” within the context of the text. While these principles are broad, they are not exclusive to women, however, women in general exhibit these qualities in more pounced ways than men.
Women, as a whole, tend to be more co...
... middle of paper ...
...where simply ending in "the black" is the goal.
Out of all her successes, there is not a component that needs any significant changes or anything that personally I could see doing differently. In fact, what would be fascinating is to have this book updated, and now follow these leaders in the age of smart phone, email, skype, instant messenger and the Ipad. Curious as to see how modern technology would interface on a daily basis with the leadership style of modern women leaders.
How does having instant communication at one’s hip enable or inhibit a moder day leader? In the past, subordinates would have more autonomy in their work because they may not be able to get in touch with their superior, now this barrier has been broke. Are leaders more engaged or more micromanaging? These are all questions that would be fascinating to research after reading this book.
Keita Powell is a pint-sized powerhouse. She is energetic, result oriented, focused, and driven. Ms. Powell is one of many women in the Mary Kay Cosmetics sales force. She rose through the ranks from Independent Beauty Consultant to Independent Elite Executive Senior Sales Director rather quickly because of her charisma, ability to build a sales team of energetic men and women, and sheer enthusiasm to succeed. One would think that she was an amazing leader to get so many women to follow her in teaching skin care, beauty techniques, increasing and maintaining sells goals and to rise from a very junior consultant to one who is an executive in the business. However, she has made mistakes along the way and continues to feign focus on her sales force and customers but the true focus is on her needs, wants, and desires as well as keeping the use of her free pink Cadillac. This paper will evaluate Ms. Powell's leadership approach through four leadership models discovered through the Unit 3 readings.
In relation to leadership and women, historically women who wanted to seek leadership roles were often seen projecting the traditional masculine model of leadership. This model means to be rational, unemotional and analytic. It also, means in order to succeed traditionally women needed to look and act like a man to be taken seriously in leadership positions. Women in the past often dressed up in suits and ties and anything feminine was seen as an internal “weakness”. To be a leader in power meant to exude confidence in masculinity and shy away from anything remotely girly. As opposed, to the feminine model which casts power as focused on connection and harmony instead of power over something, someone. This power can be skilled through collective gain or physical attractiveness (Kruse 22).
Powell, G., Butterfield, D., and Bartol, K. (2008). Leader evaluations: A new female advantage? Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23, 156-174.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Author: Sheryl Sandberg, Published in 2010. Sandberg’s focal point in gender inequality is that women are disrespected because their looked at as servants rather than leaders. On Pg. 658 of They Say/I Say Sandberg states that “She should urge more women to believe in themselves and aspire to lead”, she makes a great point that women need to be encouraged to evolve into leaders. Personally, I know several women that has a high moral, and are working for leader positions in their field. There are more females that are nurses than males in America. Statistically, that makes a great outlook on how well women are doing in some areas. Sandberg also makes it known that “gender stereotypes were reinforced throughout her life and they became self-fulfilling prophesies”. I agree with Sandberg fully because there are many people will say “Women cannot drive” or “Women are only good at being servants, which includes cooking, cleaning, and other daily household chores”. While that is not true at all, women are grouped by a statistic. Simply because women are often skilled at cooking and cleaning, does not mean that is their goal or what they aspire to become. There are a plethora of women who will not cook, clean, or serve men, period. There has been women that arose to great heights. They had to beat the odds, ignore statistics, and in some cases fight their oppressors. I disagree that women should be looked upon as second class
In 2008 the first woman was awarded the position of Speaker of the House, and Hillary Clinton ran for president. While Hillary had widespread support leading people to believe that the two different genders had reached equality, there were several that doubted whether or not a woman has what it takes to be a president. The women that came into power that was generally held by men, needed to perform a balancing act. This balancing act was between the characteristics of women and projecting the masculine strength and leadership needed to hold their position (Jenen 14). This problem in society has been continuing on for a long time. In the 1970’s women had no standing in academia. That women were no use to the department they were studying and
In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
It follows, then that women were and still are underestimated in terms of leadership. According to Webster’s dictionary, “feminism” is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. As the strong and independent character Nanny Flowers puts it, “you may be the boss out there, but I’m the boss in this kitchen” (Whale Rider, 2002). In making this comment, Nanny Flowers confronts Koro, the Chief of the community as well as her stubborn and traditional husband. She does so by asserting her role as an authoritative and independent woman, despite his sexist demand to clean up his spilt coffee. Just like her grandmother, Paikea, shows she doesn’t belong to any sweeping generalizations regarding women. Women know they are discriminated against and are inferior to men, but Paik...
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
In discussions of women’s rights, one controversial issue has been women in positions of leadership. On the one hand, Goldberg argues that women should be in more positions of power. On the other hand, Pynchon opposes women in power. Others even believe that women can’t lead. My own view is that more women should be placed into positions of power.
When you think of a CEO of a company or of world political leaders, do you think of a man or of a woman? Many, if not most of us, see these positions as being held by men. In this essay, I will explain why women are still not equal to men. In the first paragraph I will discuss inequalities that happen in the workplace. The second section will show the differences that occur within the athletic world. Thirdly, I will explain the differences in education and home life. Even though we are approaching the twenty-first century, women in our society are still not equal to men.
Men are traditionally seen as being in the "supervisor" position in the home. They are the heads of the household, the breadwinners, and the women are behind the scenes, like the threads that hold everything together. The same can be said about the workplace. Men tend to hold administrative positions, while women usually have the positions that support the administrator. They are the secretaries and assistants that do the work for their male bosses and prepare things for them that later on only the administrator may receive credit for. " ‘Where,' asks the Englishman who is prominent in social welfare, 'are you're men? We see their names on the letter-heads of organizations, but when we go to international conferences, we meet almost entirely women.' 'Our men-oh, they are the chairmen of boards, they determine the financial policy of our agencies, but they leave the practice to women. They are too busy to go to conferences.'" (Mead 304).
Today, women are entering the leadership sphere, which is mainly occupied by men. Many women leaders believe that people perform best when they feel good about themselves and their work. An effective leader creates results, reaches goals and deadlines, and quickly recognizes vision and objectives with high level of quality and productivity. To accomplish these, a leader should have special qualities like able to motivate others, specific and technical skill set, clear sense of purpose, mission, clear goals, focus and commitment. Over the years, women have proven themselves to be successful leaders as men. For instance, Oprah Winfrey, one of the most successful and famous African-American women in history to have made a huge impact and difference
The most prominent cause indicated by the literature for women’s leadership gap is the gender stereotype. A stereotype is a prejudice as a simplified description about their qualities and characteristics applied to every person in some category (Gray, 2010). Hence, gender stereotypes are simplified descriptions regarding the attributes of men and women. These can be divided into two groups: descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes. Descriptive gender stereotypes portray what women and men are like, whereas prescriptive gender stereotypes portray what women and men should be like (Heilman, 2012).
Throughout the first semester we did a group project. My group and I struggled interviewing a professor because it would be an excited, fun and educational videos. From the very beginning, there were some obstacles standing between us and reaching our goal. We had to set up meetings with our career field. During this time it was hard trying to set similar times where you and the professor could schedule an interview together. Once we got that settled down we came to another obstacle with getting the cameras. When we started to record they found out that the way we were approaching this project was not what we were trying to accomplish. As a result, we changed our project completely. We started interviewing older leadership minors and asking them what they did and how it has changed their lives.