Michelle Bakjac* says women often have a better understanding of the soft skills needed to climb the ladder to leadership.
One of the things I hear often in leadership circles is that women are too emotional to be successful leaders.
As a female leader my response to this is… yes, females have emotions, but how they use these emotions can make them some of the best leaders.
Females have emotions, but they certainly don’t ‘lose it’ at the drop of a hat.
They have emotions and they know how to utilise them.
Emotional intelligence is seen to be one of the most sort-after skills in the future of work.
There is a demand for leaders who can recognise their emotional responses to situations and then use those emotions as data or information to help make decisions.
Emotional intelligence can be a female leader’s secret weapon.
A Harvard University study has concluded that 8o per cent of a person’s achievements in their career are determined by the ‘soft skills’ they possess.
The research found that just 20 per cent was down to the hard skills such as technical abilities and qualifications.
However, technical abilities and qualifications are still given uneven weighting and importance when evaluating potential candidates for employment.
This is not to say IQ is not important, but in business and leadership, it is the so called soft skills which take an organisation forward.
Women often have permission to be emotionally intelligent in the workplace where this is sometimes denied for men.
Women executives rank highest in emotional intelligence, largely because women’s brains are wired differently.
So rather than try to think like a man, why not think like a woman and really make the most of this gift.
Women seeking leadership positions need to improve their emotional competency to enlarge their ability to cope with pressure, build trust, negotiate, and navigate workplace politics.
They can do this with their soft skills such as emotional Intelligence, relationship building, motivating others, creating trust and respect, and good communication.
I am currently working with one female executive who has a huge white board in her room covered in small tiles, each stating the name of an emotion.
When her staff come into the room to discuss an issue, there is a rule that they have to choose a tile which represents how they feel in that particular moment.
In other words, she gets them to own their emotion and how they feel as they begin discussion with her.
How awesome is that.
So ladies, use your emotions for good.
Manage them and recognise the data they contain so we can change a few statistics.
*Michelle Bakjac is an Adelaide-based psychologist, organisational consultant, coach, speaker and facilitator. She can be contacted at [email protected].
This article first appeared on the Bakjac Consulting website.
