Sara London* says women can only succeed as leaders if they show these three emotions.
There’s no dispute that women in business have it harder than men.
But now they also have to smile more to succeed.
A recent study out of the Drexel University found that when females in positions of leadership express positive emotions, they’re seen as more effective leaders than their male counterparts.
But if they show negative emotions, they’re seen as less effective.
Over the course of five studies amalgamated into one, just about 1,300 participants were asked about their opinions concerning what leaders’ emotional expressions said about their leadership skills.
Female leaders earned lower ratings on the whole as leaders when they showed more anger, fear, and remorse.
On the other side of things, female leaders were highly rated when they were demonstrated cheer.
Women who expressed pride or were described as calm, didn’t have higher or lower perceived leadership skills.
The researchers concluded that high-level female leaders, like C-suite executives, who showed more happiness or cheer were perceived as better leaders.
Women who were largely disliked were supposedly angry individuals who apologized or expressed uncertainty.
The men’s results, however, were not so stark, and were able to relay anger or remorse without being thought of as ineffective leaders.
The bias against women
This isn’t the first study to come to this conclusion.
A 2016 study on biases about women’s emotions in the workplace caused people to believe that women are ineffective leaders if they choose to display emotion.
The authors argued that these stereotypes cause women to navigate “two complex minefields” in order to be successful.
The first is discerning how much emotion they need to display, and the second is what kind of emotion they need to display in the moment.
Men were not found to consider their expressions of emotion quite as thoughtfully and instead simply expressed what they were feeling at the time, no matter how intense.
A 2000 study from the Journal of Organisational Psychology found that men, when expressing so-called “feminine” emotions like sadness or empathy, were considered to be ineffective leaders, whereas women’s ineffective leadership was based upon both their sadness or anger levels.
I’m a female leader. What should I do?
Though sometimes it feels like it would be fantastic to express every emotion at work, showing too much emotion, especially if you are a woman, doesn’t bode well.
But this doesn’t mean you have to be mute in the corner.
“Women often cry at work is because they’re angry,” Anne Kreamer, author of It’s Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace, wrote, “Women feel the inability to express anger at work.
“This is a deeply common phenomenon for almost all women.”
But carefully selecting words to convey frustration can be effective.
“Women should articulate their anger so it doesn’t diminish their standing in the organisation or their larger workplace ethos,” Kreamer wrote.
Options like this will grant you the ability to open up while also remaining professional, and may break down some of the stigmas many people have about emotional female leaders.
*Sara London is a career advice writer at The Ladders.
This article first appeared at theladders.com.
