It is time for some good news.   Many of us were downhearted in July 2007 when we read Catalyst’s latest publication, “The Double Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if you do, Doomed if You Don’t.” [1]  That piece presented research from two Catalyst studies that looked at perceptions of women’s leadership among very senior U.S. and European business executives and found that stereotypes not only endure but they are pervasive across cultures.  The predominant stereotype was that women leaders are better at “taking care” and men are better at “taking charge.”  

The research carefully notes that “these perceptions are not supported by research on actual leadership behavior, which finds that gender is not (the italics are mine) a reliable predictor of how a person will lead.” But we all know that perception is reality, or at the very least, is likely to shape important outcomes.

But wait, there is really good news from another quarter!  [2]  Two professors at Insead, the premier business school in Europe, reported it in a January 2009 article in Harvard Business Review called “Women & the Vision Thing.”  Based on a database of 360-degree assessments for thousands of executive education participants (they call this the Global Executive Leadership Inventory), they found that “female leaders received higher ratings than male leaders in most dimensions of leadership.”

Let us just stop and savor this for a moment.  This means that their bosses, their subordinates and their peers – both men and women — rated the women higher than the men on dimensions that included: 

·         Empowering

·         Energizing

·         Designing & aligning

·         Rewarding & feedback

·         Team-building

·         Outside orientation

·         Global mindset

·         Tenacity

·         Emotional intelligence

And there is only the tiniest bit of negative news in their research: on only one dimension and only by one set of observers were women  rated lower than men!  Stop again and savor.  Now proceed.  While the bosses and subordinates (male and female) of these people scored women as higher than men on their envisioning capabilities, the male peers of these people viewed men as slightly higher than women.  This, of course, seems predictable as competitive posturing, right? 

So, my friends, take heart.  The news is indeed good. Finally, your talents are being seen through the miasma of prejudice and stereotypes. But let us keep in mind that, as the authors of the study caution, “this envisioning dimension is, for most observers, a must-have capability.” 

I recently shared this research with women who have participated in Babson’s very own Executive Education program on Women’s Leadership that we call “Moving from Managing to Leading.” I wrapped up by encapsulating the collective wisdom from my several colleagues who teach in the program: to move from managing to leading, (this is, to be seen as a visionary leader), one needs to

• Articulate opportunities and threats in the environment.
• Articulate strategic direction through this environment.
• Acknowledge and explain how you will manage the risks to get the rewards of this strategy.
• Be decisive (and resilient: expect some to be wrong and let go of those like your male colleagues do – learning is ‘trial and ERROR,’ remember)
• Inspire all your constituents
• Deliver results
• Articulate the linkage among all the above and claim credit for what you do

Take heart and have fun with this. 

Submitted by: Anne Donnellon, Associate Professor and Faculty Director for Babson’s Fast Track MBA Program