Are the leadership skills needed for women different than men?  Which gender makes the best boss? Many articles are written espousing that men are better bosses because they take charge where women take care and I don’t actually think this is an either-or kind of question.  It’s really a question of what qualities make someone a successful leader.

There are clearly differences between men and women.  Women are raised to be nurturing, caring and communicative.  Men are not necessarily taught to exhibit those same qualities.  Often, when communicating with male executives, I hear comments like, “I don’t like this warm, fuzzy stuff”, and yet women in those same positions seem to be able to accomplish it naturally, without any effort at all.  

If we look at qualities that make a good leader, they aren’t different for women than men.  However in a society where social conditioning assigns specific attributes to successful business management, many women feel like they need to act like a man to work successfully in a man’s world.  Since acting as someone that you are not, will undoubtedly keep women from showing up as their true selves, their business success is obstructed. Being genuine and sincere in your leadership is the foundation of business success.   

Men see themselves as leaders.  They are taught from a young age to think, act and be the world’s leaders.  Inevitably, they grow up to see themselves as leaders. So when they are placed in a leadership role it is ‘more natural for them’ than it is for women.  This doesn’t necessarily mean they are more successfully; simply that they don’t work as hard at it as women tend to do.

Being a good leader means you set strong values for your business and live by them yourself.  It means that you have respect for the people you manage, guide them without micro-managing them, build strong relationships, create a team atmosphere, and appropriately reward your people for a job is done well.  So, the question isn’t whether one gender is better boss-material than the other, but rather the question is what makes a successful leader.