Leadership from Venus or from Mars

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Leadership from Venus or from Mars?

• Pat Collarbone
• 17.11.03

2
The female/male brain Context Gender
paradigms Implications for leadership
3

• Ask men and women if their brains work
  differently.
• Men will say they think they do, in fact there
  was
• something they were reading on the Internet the
  other
• day Women will say, of course they do next
• question.
• From Why men dont listen, Women cant read maps
  (2001)

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• Left hemisphere
• (right side)
• mathematics
• verbal
• logical
• facts
• deduction
• analysis
• practical
• order
• words of a song
• lineal
• sees fine detail

• Right hemisphere
• (left side)
• creative
• artistic
• visual
• intuition
• ideas
• imagination
• holistic
• Sees big picture
• tune of a song
• spatial
• multiprocessing

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What we know

• men and womens operate differently for example,
  men mainly use the left brain for speech, women
  use both sides
• left side of a girls brain develops more rapidly
  than that of a boy speak sooner, read earlier
  and learn a foreign language faster
• right side of a boys brain develops more rapidly
  than that of a girl develop mathematical,
  building, logical, puzzles and problem-solving
  skills earlier
• women tend to connect the left and right brain
  more effectively than men
• mens brains tend to be compartmentalised,
  womens brains are configured for multi-tasking.

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An Experiment How many triangles?

• One
• Two
• Four
• Five
• Other

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The female/male brain Context Gender
paradigms Implications for leadership
8
75 Years of Progress

• social attitudes have changed considerably
• people are still experiencing unfairness in their
  daily lives
• women generally retain the key responsibility for
  childcare
• there is a widespread commitment to a fairer,
  more tolerant society
• individuals are sometimes resigned to inequality
• cultural and other barriers are seen as important
• people feel that inequality is complex
• the language used to talk about these things
  needs to be refreshed.
• Source Equal Opportunities Commission (2003)

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And yet

• women full-time workers earn, on average, 19
  less than men. part-time, 41 less
• 75 of women work in the 5 lowest-paid sectors
• more than 50 of parents have no access to
  flexible working
• only one in seven children under the age of 8
  currently has access to a childcare place
• men want to spend more time with their children,
  yet work the longest hours in the EU
• the average woman in retirement will have an
  income just over half that of a man
• in 2001/02 24,000 people took a case of sexual
  discrimination or equal pay to an employment
  tribunal
• women hold less than 10 of the top positions in
  FTSE 100 companies, the police, the judiciary and
  trade unions
• each week two women are killed by partners or
  ex-partners and domestic violence incidents are
  the most call-outs for the police.
• Source Equal Opportunities Commission (2003)

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And teachers in education (2001)
Source DfES, 2002. All figures in percentages
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Female teachers in secondary schools
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The female/male brain Context Gender
paradigms Implications for leadership
13
Gender Paradigms

• Nurturing feminine paradigm
• caring
• creative
• intuitive
• aware of individual differences
• non-competitive
• tolerant
• subjective
• informal

• Defensive/aggressive
• masculine paradigm
• highly regulated
• conformist
• normative
• evaluative
• competitive
• disciplined
• objective
• formal

Gray, 1993
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Leadership Paradigms
Action
Connectivity
Task
Captain
Coach
Relationship
Fragmentation
Risk-taking
Holistic
Paradox
Competition
Partnership
Modern mainly feminine
Traditional mainly masculine
Cook and Rothwell, 2000
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The female/male brain Context Gender
paradigms Implications for leadership
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The Cultural Shift

• Short term
• Reaction
• Compliance
• Autocratic
• Competition
• Independence
• Stress

• Long term
• Initiative
• Creativity
• Distributed
• Collaborative
• Inter-dependence
• Fulfilment

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21st Century Leadership A Theory
Action
Connectivity
Task
Captain
Relationship
Coach
Holistic
Paradox
Fragmentation
Risk-taking
Partnership
Competition
Cook and Rothwell, 2000
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Feminine Paradigm (Headteachers perceptions)
Coleman, 2002, using Gray
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Masculine Paradigm (Headteachers perceptions)
Coleman, 2002, using Gray
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Leadership Styles

• coercive - appropriate in a crisis, to kick-start
  a turnaround or with problem-employees. impact
  on climate strongly negative effect.
• authoritative - appropriate when change requires
  a new vision or when a clear direction is needed.
  impact on climate strongly positive.
• affiliative - appropriate to heal rifts in a team
  or to motivate during stressful times. impact on
  climate highly positive.
• democratic - appropriate to build consensus or to
  get valuable input from employees. impact on
  climate highly positive.
• pacesetting - appropriate in order to get quick
  results from a highly motivated and competent
  team. impact on climate highly negative.
• coaching - appropriate to help an employee
  improve performance or develop long-term
  strengths. impact on climate highly positive.

HayGroup, LPSH, 2002
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Enthusiasm
Understand change
Moral purpose
Leaders
Relationship building
Coherence making
Energy
Knowledge creation and sharing
Hope
Commitment (internal and external)
Followers
More good things happen fewer bad things happen.
Results
Fullan, 2001
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We need leaders who

• communicate a sense of authentic moral purpose
  (moral purpose)
• can see new possibilities (understand change)
• take risks (understand change)
• build a resonant emotional environment
  (relationships)
• share leadership (creating and sharing knowledge)
• make meaning for others (making coherence)
• are ambitious (for their organisation), humble
  (about themselves) and confident about the future
  (all)

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Key Areas of Leadership Learning
Are these the right areas?
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Reflection

• What can we learn from what we already know?
• What can headteachers do to balance the
  masculine-oriented nature of their
  responsibilities (see Teachers Pay and
  Conditions Document) and the masculinity of the
  current National Standards with the feminine
  attributes ascribed to current leadership models?
• Is leadership from Venus or from Mars, or in
  between Earth?