All specious gender generalizations aside, those who have lost faith in masculine versions of leadership gravitate with hope toward more feminine models. As gender mythologies go, feminine leadership models feature more empathy, nurturing and inclusivity. Growing evidence associates these with higher engagement organizations and communities.
In my 3 decades working with leaders worldwide across dozens of industries, I’ve seen evidence of men and women in leadership positions capable of the whole range of masculine to feminine styles of leadership. I continue to see nurturing emotional men and decisive rational women.
I would argue that agile leaders transcend self or socially imposed gender constraints. They adapt to what works regardless of gender associations. They score bilaterally on personality and leadership assessment tools.
All of this has everything to do with how we develop leaders. Where feminine styles of leadership create higher capacity for agility, women with these capacities will make better leaders than their more constrained male peers. The good news from the neurosciences is that any gendered brain is capable of growing capacity for agility.
