Today's business environment demands new ways of working and lead, and, especially at this time, companies need leaders who are people-centred, empathetic and committed to communication, collaboration and teamwork. These skills have become increasingly important in recent years, but the COVID-19 pandemic (along with the economic crisis and the uncertainty it has caused in companies around the world) has only highlighted their value. Fortunately, there is one group of people who have the necessary qualities for this, who are already part of organisations and who are often not sufficiently taken into account when thinking about leadership: women.
A number of recent studies confirm what many people already know: that women tend to be highly empathetic and possess highly developed emotional intelligence. They tend to be better at active listening, asking for ideas, collaborating, giving credit to others and changing course when circumstances require it. Tellingly, it has been shown that the collective intelligence of small groups increases when there are more women in them. Moreover, companies with gender-balanced management teams are more innovative than their competitors and record better financial results.
Of course, we are not assuming that all women have the kind of skills we have just named, nor will we discuss why they are more likely to have them, but for companies looking for the kind of managerial talent needed to succeed in today's business environment, the underlying explanation is less important than the urgent need to work and lead with a new set of principles and philosophy of work. Companies can advance further and faster if they work hard to attract, retain and nurture their female talent pool.
The operating model of most companies needs to change.
The operating model of most organisations is evolving due to the disruptions related to the talent and technology. To succeed in such an environment, we believe organisations will need two fundamental skill sets. The first is made up of digital capabilities; many organisations are actively recruiting digital developers. softwaredata scientists and analysts, customer experience designers and other profiles with advanced digital skills.
The second set of skills (the subject of this article) is just as important: capabilities that humans develop in areas such as communication, collaboration, inspiration, emotional intelligence, creativity and imagination. While algorithms can execute standardised processes and make simple decisions much faster, cheaper and more accurately than people, other skills, those that only humans possess, such as empathy, creativity and judgement, are paramount to solving complex problems.
For this reason, leaders of organisations Agile Today's leaders do not simply give orders based solely on their own experience or expertise, but identify a problem and support autonomous teams who will actually solve it and validate the solution with customers. This type of leadership involves accepting a certain vulnerability, as it involves supporting people who know more about a given issue than their superiors and who are more likely to find the solution, which is likely to make many traditional leaders uncomfortable.
In a business environment with increasingly decoupled and independent cross-functional teams, leaders must be empathetic and able to empower others, inspire teams, build relationships and learn with humility.
Human" skills are as important as digital skills
These 'people' skills are as important as digital capabilities to the success of any business, and while some such as empathy and relationship building may seem rare among candidates for senior positions, most companies will find them in their own pools of undiscovered female employees and managers.
There is growing evidence of women's unique ability to lead in innovative ways.
Empirical evidence shows that women are more likely to develop many of the key leadership skills. For example, a recent study by Harvard Business Reviewwhich found that women in management positions scored higher than their male counterparts on a number of key competencies, such as inspiring and motivating others, building relationships, and collaborating and working in teams (in case this seems exceptional, the authors conducted the original study in 2012 and updated it in 2019, where they found similar results).
Similarly, when studying more specific skills, researchers at the University of Leipzig found that, on average, women are better at accurately deciphering the emotions on people's faces. Another study found that they are clearly better at reading body language. A third study found that men detect subtle hints of emotions such as sadness in a face only 40% of the time, while women can notice these barely perceptible signals with a reliability of 90%.
In addition, a publication in the magazine Science showed that the collective intelligence of small groups increased if there were more women in them. Women are more likely to recognise the merits of others, ask for feedback, listen actively and take turns participating in conversations or tasks, rather than trying to dominate these situations. As a result, groups with a greater presence of women were more collaborative and were better able to take advantage of the potential contributions of all participants.
The ability to listen and empathise is absolutely essential to create a truly collaborative and innovative environment.
The research findings coincide with the actual experience shared by managers overseeing transformations. Agile and other large-scale operational changes. For example, Jessica Järnbert, Head of Business Consulting Services at Amadeus IT Group in Spain, a leading technology provider to the global travel industry, has been working on an Agile transformation project for three years, and says that communication and empathy have been key during this time.
"The ability to listen and empathise is absolutely essential to create an environment of trust where real collaboration takes place," says Järnbert. "However, there is another very important skill: the ability to define, articulate and communicate strategy. Without this ability, there is a serious risk of rushing, doing things wrong and ending up with results that are not what you are really looking for. If people have a common vision, a common purpose and a common strategy, it is easier to promote collaboration to achieve those things.
Järnbert also believes that women are ideally suited to oversee such change-related initiatives, as assessing the well-being of the wider community rather than seeking personal gain is one of their strengths.
Janice Semper, Senior Advisor at BCG and former Senior Executive for Human Resources at GE, underlines the growing need for persuasive and empathetic leadership: "When you ask people to give up old habits and change their behaviour, it is not enough to inform and tell them that they have to change the way they think and act," Semper explains. "Everyone will start from different starting points and their willingness to change will vary. Success requires dialogue and discussion throughout the organisation so that people can be helped to understand what it means for them and a willingness to change can be developed. Emotional intelligence (EI) has become as important as intelligence quotient (IQ), if not more so".
Because of women's strong ability to manage social dynamics, Semper continues, they are able to bring people together and achieve better business results: "My experience is that female managers are often good listeners," she explains. "They have patience and humility, they are able to deal with complexity and understand the relationships between emotions and actions. They are more involved and empathetic, which is necessary to get everyone involved in the process.
We need leaders who have real interest and trust in the people.
Finally, Teresa Graham, Head of Global Product Strategy at Roche, stresses the importance of bringing together different perspectives and points of view to make teams more creative and effective. "It's about being able to find innovative approaches to challenges, whether individually or collectively," says Graham. "At Roche, we've focused a lot on empowering small, autonomous teams, and we've eliminated those processes that slow us down. We need leaders who have a real interest and trust in people, a high degree of cultural awareness, and who are able to communicate ideas to the people they work with regardless of culture or geography, because if you really want people to take responsibility, lead and collaborate in new ways, you have to trust them.
How can managers contribute to this change? "A big part of creativity and collaboration comes from bringing different points of view and perspectives to the table based on diversity, whether it's gender, age, geographic origin or any other visible or invisible difference," says Graham. "Another part comes from making sure that everyone is heard and that everyone has a chance to contribute fully." She also adds that women often create learning networks that integrate and embrace different points of view more naturally. All this means that "women can be great leaders and role models in enabling greater diversity of thought, fostering communication and collaboration, and providing opportunities for those who do not fit the traditional pattern".
For organisations that understand the need to work and lead with new principles and philosophy of work and that diversity is good for businessThe message is clear: companies need to identify people with these skills and assign them to leadership positions. While this was true even before COVID-19, the pandemic has now highlighted the importance of empathetic and collaborative leadership that is agile in decision making and implementation. Companies that want to benefit from these skills will need to redouble their efforts to attract, retain and motivate women.