Female Leadership: Find your way through the Pitfalls of Contemporary Life and Emerge as a Strong, Self-Assured Leader (2022 Guide for Beginners)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

A Woman's Guide to Modern Leadership

CHAPTER 2

Are There Not Enough Good Women Leaders?

CHAPTER 3

The Difficult Gender Issues of the Second Generation

CHAPTER 5

Rapidly Dismantling Gender Barriers

CHAPTER 6

Choosing for Yourself

CHAPTER 7

More General Techniques for Everyday Use

CHAPTER 8

The Ascent and Ascendance of Women Entrepreneurs

CHAPTER 9

Developing The Next Generation Of Female Leaders

CONCLUSION

NEW WORLD ORDER

It is generally acknowledged that there are currently fewer female leaders than male ones. Although things are gradually improving, there is still a long way to go before the glass ceiling is broken. Although overt discrimination against women is getting less common, it still exists.

Only about 6% of the Fortune 500 companies in North America are led by women. However, women make up 47% of the workforce in the US; why then is there such a huge disparity?

Fortunately, trends have been changing for a while in favor of a more equal gender balance for female leadership roles in the workforce.

Numerous powerful female leaders and businesswomen are paving the way because women are no longer willing to accept an unequal status. There has never been a better time for women who want to lead or pursue entrepreneurship to get started.

This book will explain why having more female leaders can lead to greater success and profitability if your company is looking to improve the gender balance of its leadership. We'll also look at what you can do to promote changes that will give more women the chance to hold senior positions.

While leadership is about ability, not gender, many innately feminine characteristics make good leaders. In this book, we'll also look at how women can enhance their leadership potential by utilizing their innate feminine skills. Instead of encouraging women to embrace more traditionally viewed masculine traits, which may not come naturally to them, we will work to disprove the notion that effective leadership necessitates more than just these characteristics. Instead, we'll examine the advantages of more feminine leadership philosophies and promote women's adoption of them. We'll look into the obstacles you might encounter and consider the best ways to get past them.

In this book, we'll also look into how fostering and appointing more female executives can benefit businesses. Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of female leaders for success.

Long-term business strength can be increased by using a variety of management approaches throughout the organization. We'll go into more detail about what women bring to the table and why we are so damn valuable throughout the next nine chapters.

CHAPTER 1

A Woman's Guide to Modern Leadership

Knowing yourself and your strengths is important. Anyone can be anything they want to be, regardless of gender.

ClassPass's founder and executive chairman Payal Kadakia

Understanding Leadership

Leadership is a broad concept that encompasses many concepts and values. According to the dictionary, leading a team or an organization is a verb. Real leadership, however, goes far beyond that straightforward definition. Also, the definition of leadership is frequently subjective.

In a business setting, the ability of senior managers to set ambitious goals, motivate their teams to achieve those goals, and inspire others to do the same is referred to as leadership. It's the way they encourage the best possible levels of business performance. Additionally, it refers to how management teams motivate and inspire their staff to uphold the company's vision and values.

Good leadership is the reason a company performs well, meets its goals, and is on par with or outperforms its rivals. Accordingly, poor leadership is frequently the cause of poor performance.

Leadership sets the direction a company is headed in and then steers it towards that direction, which is why you frequently see a change in leadership shortly after a business announces poor performance figures.

Outstanding Female Leadership

As CEO, Meg Whitman joined eBay in 1998. The business had 30 total employees at the time, and its annual revenue was $4,000,000. Whitman's leadership saw the company achieve unprecedented growth by the end of 2008. With a current workforce of 15,000 and annual revenue of $8,000,000, eBay left her position as CEO in 2008, but her legacy as a tremendously successful leader is undeniable. She was also honored with a U.S. Business Hall of Fame induction in 2008.

What, then, about Meg Whitman's management style transformed eBay from a quirky, marginally profitable company into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse?

Whitman's leadership provided the company with much-needed direction.

She was passionate about putting customers first and making eBay's website more user-friendly and slick instead of clunky and challenging. She restructured the business, dividing it into 23 distinct business divisions, and named executives to head each division.

She was adamant about establishing a distinct vision and making sure that everyone in the organization understood it and their role in achieving it. She was aware that everyone would need to be on board for eBay to achieve the success she had in mind.

Whitman focused on this while also emphasizing employee engagement because she thought that a motivated and content workforce would produce the best results. Her coworkers have been known to refer to her as relentlessly optimistic and express their admiration for her ability to maintain concentration and optimism. Because of Whitman's management style, employees felt more empowered, the company operated more effectively, and customer satisfaction skyrocketed. not to mention the earnings, of course!

Leadership Techniques

Most business owners want to achieve the same results: high profits and a strong company that can withstand erratic external forces. They may, however, approach it very differently.

There are numerous leadership philosophies and models that examine the various approaches to leadership. To cover them all, a brand-new book would be required. Therefore, for this chapter, we'll examine a few of the most popular and influential models of leadership style.

The Leadership Styles of Lewin

Kurt Lewin, a psychologist, led one of the first investigations into leadership styles in 1939. Three fundamental leadership philosophies that Lewin and his team identified served as the foundation for later, more intricate leadership theories.

Three groups of schoolchildren were divided into democratic, autocratic, or laissez-faire leadership groups for the study. The researchers then recorded how the kids responded and behaved under the various leadership styles.

A common model used in leadership and management courses all over the world is the three types of leadership. Let's examine how the three contrasting styles contrast in more detail:

Tyrannical leadership

Authoritarians are the leaders of autocracies. They make expectations and deadlines crystal clear. A leader and his or her followers are divided under autocratic rule. This type of leadership involves the leader making all decisions alone, without consulting their followers.

The advantage of this approach is that staff members receive clear instructions and know what is expected of them. It is helpful in circumstances where breaking laws and standards can have grave repercussions. For instance, it might be the kind of management that suits a sector with strict regulations best.

The drawbacks are that it stifles original thought, fosters low employee engagement, and can be perceived as having a very authoritarian management style. When misused, it can produce a very hostile environment. Additionally, it may result in a us versus them mentality wherein workers and bosses are seen as being on opposing sides.

Autocratic leadership is typically regarded as an outdated style of management that has more drawbacks than advantages. It's a useful style to adopt in circumstances where a strong leader is needed to take charge and make decisions, but it's rarely the right style to use regularly.

Democratic Management

Democratic leaders promote interactive conversation and group participation in activities. They frequently offer direction and counsel but are less likely to issue strict rules and directives. In general, they prefer the result to the process. Democratic leaders support their followers' right to express their opinions, but they still hold the deciding vote.

Democratic leaders foster better engagement and more motivated followers by promoting participation. Additionally, it promotes more imaginative thinking and efficient teamwork.

This was regarded as the most effective leadership style in Lewin's study. Despite producing less than the children in the Autocratic group, this group's output was of higher quality.

Laissez-Faire Management

Laissez-faire leaders offer very little guidance or direction and encourage followers to take the initiative and make decisions on their own, with little to no guidance from the leader.

This group produced the least and had the most difficulty collaborating and working independently in Lewin's study.

Additionally, they put the leader under the most pressure.

Modern leadership models and styles

Few leaders can consistently be classified in one of those three polarizing leadership philosophies. Lewin's work, however, served as a starting point for additional research into leadership theory, which has since grown and evolved into a variety of leadership styles.

Here are a few of the most recognized and well-liked leadership philosophies.

Leadership in Transactions

The autocratic leadership style of Lewin is most closely related to transactional leadership. In this type of leadership, the relationship between the leader and the followers is entirely transactional and typically based on monetary rewards for tasks accomplished.

The transactional leader sets expectations and provides clear directives. Followers are aware of what is expected of them as well as the anticipated payment.