However, society's beliefs are not entirely wrong, indeed, women and men are not equal. Which implies that their leadership styles are different. These differences are what allow women to take charge of public and private organizations, with excellent results. A research study of 7,280 leaders in 2011 showed women are better leaders than men. The results of this research were conclusive as women out-scored men in all but one of the 16 competencies. As noted by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, two of the traits where women outscored men to the highest degree — taking initiative and driving for results — have long been thought of as particularly male strengths. While about 80% of the study sample were men, women are seen as better leaders than men by those around them at every level.
According to research led by professors Roslin Growe, and Paula Montgomery, “Women and the leadership paradigm: bridging the gender gap." Schools with female administrators are better managed (the quality of pupil learning and professional performance of teachers is higher), and on average out-perform those managed by men. Like this study, there are several that reach similar results, which gives as enough evidence to say that women lead differently than men. According to Growe & Montgomery, the differences, we see in leadership style are partly due to the way men view leadership as leading, while women see leadership as facilitating.
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Successful companies manage to motivate employees and engage them with the objectives of the organization, which is not only reflected in the business performance but also in the companies' ability to retain and attract talent to support the growth of the organization. These companies are able to do so mainly because they focus on relationships. These organizations count on leaders who create a greater emotional involvement with their employees, the reason why they care about their teams, listen to them, and support them in their personal life and professional growth. When we talk about a focus on relationships, emotional involvement, and a focus on cooperation rather than hierarchic, we are describing 3 of the key features of women's leadership.
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Moreover, as highlighted by Josephine M. Kiamba "women portray a more participatory approach, are more democratic, allow for power and information sharing, are more sensitive, more nurturing than men, focus on relationships and enable others to make contributions through delegation." Eduardo Melero, a professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, carried out research on whether companies with a large number of women run differently. His research showed that organizations with a large number of female managers were far more democratic, using employee feedback in all decision-making. As a result, those workplaces made better, more informed decisions and reported higher levels of employee satisfaction because workers felt like they were contributing to the company and having their voices heard. Consequently, contemporary work environments undoubtedly need more leaders who portray leadership traits generally associated with women.
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