Change the language of leadership

Historically, the language of leadership has been defined by broadly ‘male traits’. In a study by Anne Cummings for Wharton University in the US, respondents were asked what words they associated with leadership: ‘strong, arrogant, intelligent, ego-driven, bravado, powerful, dominant, assertive, single-tasking, focused, competitive, stubborn, physical, self-righteous and direct’ all featured19 . Similarly, McKinsey found that, despite appreciation being voiced for a broad (and fairly progressive) set of leadership characteristics, “that message was negated by promoting primarily on the basis of more traditional types of leadership behaviour, such as authoritative decision-making, control, and corrective action.”20

There are two interesting factors at play here: the traits associated with strong leadership are commonly defined as being masculine, even when they are seen in women; and that those traits describe an out-dated idea of what good leadership looks like.

The challenges presented during the pandemic changed many businesses’ view of what they valued in leadership. UN Women concluded that effective leadership is about combining compassion and competence21. Forbes’ analysis of how the pandemic had changed leadership proposed that ‘managing stress, building credibility through expertise, being prepared to deliver bad news, communicating with empathy,

19 “The Masculine and Feminine Sides of Leadership and Culture: Perception Vs Reality” Sigal Barsade. 2005

20 “When women lead, workplaces should listen” McKinsey, 2019

21 “Effective, Decisive, and Inclusive: Women’s Leadership in Covid-19 Response and Recovery”, Un Women, 2021 communication, an open-forum and modelling desirable behaviours for others are all important.’22

In their Harvard Business Review article, “7LeadershipLessonsMenCanLearn from Women”23, Cindy Gallop and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic point to the fact that women have been asked to ‘lean-in’ to qualities like assertiveness, boldness and confidence if they aspire to leadership. They point out the danger of this - that those qualities may mask someone’s real ability to do the job well. Instead they propose that everyone be measured against relevant leadership qualities for the job.

22 “The Pandemic Has Changed Leadership For The Better: How Young Leaders Will Respond To Today’s Challenges”, Charles Knippen, Forbes, 2021

23 “7 Leadership Lessons Men Can Learn from Women”. Cindy Gallup, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. Harvard Business Review. 2020

There are common themes in what has been written about leadership. The characteristics give at best a one-sided version of good leadership, at worst describe a leadership culture unfit for the workplaces of today. Promoting people into leadership roles based on such criteria perpetuates bias largely in favour of men, but is also destructive to businesses which -the pandemic taught us when there is more compassion and empathy at the top. Whilst there is no definitive list of leadership qualities, the articles and papers mentioned prompt us to consider what our businesses need and as a result of that, broaden our view of who might be the right leaders for the future.