2 Nov 2016
With much debate about the under-representation of women in leadership roles, Sarah Page-Jones discusses how a gender-neutral approach could be more accessible for female leaders.
Sarah Page-Jones
Job Title
Leadership.
Take a moment to think of a person you regard as a great leader. What does the person look like? How would you describe their character traits and personality? What have they achieved?
Have you described a tall, handsome, charismatic white alpha-male from a privileged background who’s on top of a traditional hierarchy? If so, you’re probably not alone.
Although the picture is changing (and by no means all-encompassing), this historic view of leaders is still prevalent today.
Well done to those of you who imagined somebody short, unattractive, black, Asian or from an underprivileged background, particularly if that person was a woman.
Traditional leadership descriptions include those based on the story of a heroic individual, a hierarchical position of power and authority, winning results or leadership models.
Hence we hear advice based on the importance of developing certain character traits – for example, charisma, assertiveness and decisiveness, or a ruthless approach to “winning”. Or we hear a simple model is all you need to succeed when, in fact, there is little or no empirical support for it.
These traditional approaches conjure up images of the omniscient and omnipotent leader who tends to inhibit personal development, particularly for women.
Unless you’re hubristic, you’ll probably tell yourself you couldn’t possibly measure up and, if you could, the masculine nature of must-have character traits tend to be at odds with traditional feminine qualities – for example, women as caring and compassionate individuals.
This can lead to issues of incompatible identities of self as a woman versus self as leader, whereas masculinity and leadership are closely linked in many cultures.
This also tends to lead to contradictory feedback for female leaders – for example, “we want you to be less aggressive [and]… be tougher and hold people accountable”, or “we want you to be more decisive [and]… be more collaborative”.
Society also tends to judge female leaders more harshly as we expect women to be more compassionate leaders, but then penalise them for this “less robust” approach while reprimanding those women who adopt a more aggressive or assertive style for behaving “inappropriately”.
Similarly, if we think of Barack Obama crying in public, this was interpreted as him demonstrating emotional intelligence. However, if Hillary Clinton responded in the same way, it is more likely she would have been seen as weak or hysterical.
Taken together, these factors can mean women simply don’t see themselves as leaders.
How can we increase the number of female leaders? Firstly we can use information based on traditional leadership learning; many people find this useful.
We simply have to be mindful of the drawbacks, particularly for women, and approach them from a critically analytic perspective.
We might also benefit from a new definition of leadership that is gender neutral and difficult to argue with; simply that to be a leader you must have followers.
By implication, this means all other traditional definitions become largely irrelevant since, unless people are prepared to follow you, you’re not a leader.
We also need to recognise the leadership potential of women tends to show in less conventional ways.
For example, women tend to be better at:
In the veterinary profession we’re committed to professional development and might look for a book, or course, on our subject of interest.
We know this type of learning serves us well from a scientific perspective; facts, information, techniques and “how to” guides are easily conveyed through these media we can take away and apply as soon as we get back to work.
Leadership can be approached in this way, although complex people-orientated skills and expertise are harder to convey via formal teaching methods, particularly when the unique environmental and contextual circumstances leaders find themselves in are taken into account.
In this situation we need to move away from our familiar principles of learning the “right” way to do things and become more comfortable with the concept of trying to do the right thing in a given situation.
Similarly to popular leadership descriptions, this doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be gained from traditional learning methods; it just means we have to critically evaluate what we’re reading or being taught, and ask ourselves and our tutors questions about the various recommendations being given – either for the person we need to be, or the model we need to follow – that promises us an easy route to greatness.
Reflective practice allows us to move forward with leadership learning, but only if we accept leadership is a more complex phenomenon than we might want to believe and become more comfortable with a level of uncertainty.
A degree of vulnerability on the part of the leader is also necessary to develop further and reduce reliance on simple “right” answers, because circumstances and people are inherently unpredictable.
This can be particularly difficult for vets who have previously valued themselves as experts in their field and often take the same values forward into leadership.
However, in this situation we develop self-awareness by looking back with candour at our thoughts and actions, and the outcomes they generate; we won’t learn anything from unsuccessful outcomes by convincing ourselves someone else is to blame.
Similarly, there is no merit in blaming yourself when environmental factors, organisational politics or processes, or other people played a part or thwarted your best efforts.
We must also remind ourselves correlation does not imply causation. To illustrate this point, consider a situation where a regional manager (let’s call him/her Alex) spoke to a branch surgery vet the previous week about his/her low average transaction value (ATV) that, this week, has increased by £10.
Alex could tell him/herself his/her actions caused the change and conclude (s)he is a great leader, or (s)he could choose to suspend personal congratulation, look at some data and speak to the vet.
By doing this Alex might uncover a hidden third variable in the form of a couple of large surgical cases that increased the ATV and find out the vet felt disillusioned and misunderstood after what Alex thought was a productive pep talk.
This suggests, by assuming causation, Alex wouldn’t have learned anything and, furthermore, would have mistakenly bolstered his/her self-belief and potentially made the situation worse by repeating the same process when the ATV fell again.
However, by accepting the possibility of alternative explanations and perspectives, and listening to the vet in question, Alex could learn an awful lot.
More successful outcomes also aid learning as we improve by experimenting with new approaches, and step back and question our assumptions, beliefs and behaviours.
This improves our self-awareness and, hence, our ability to choose more appropriate actions and behaviours – even in emotionally and politically complex circumstances.
It also allows us to consider changes in perspective or approach that may be warranted in a changing environment.
It’s not difficult to learn reflectively, but it does take some effort initially since we have to develop the skills to step back from events, and observe our actions and behaviours objectively.
Keeping a personal learning diary, or thinking through past events while walking the dog, can facilitate this.
One-to-one discussions, or small group learning, can also be useful to obtain the thoughts and insights of trusted colleagues, learning partners, friends and/or family who are prepared to ask questions about your actions and whom you won’t resent for doing so.
An external consultant can be useful if you’d rather keep these conversations separate from the people around you.
Reflective practice requires time investment initially, but as you become more skilful it becomes an intuitive part of everyday thinking and discussions.
A simple table can help as part of your learning diary (Table 1). For the purposes of illustration I have used the earlier example of Alex the regional manager.
You can delete or add further columns depending on what you find most useful. For example, a section to record how you feel about the situation can help with developing self-awareness – and if you have already received feedback, add this in as well.
Once we have a basic outline of where we have got to, we can move on to using an action-learning loop (Figure 1). This allows us to open our minds to the reality of the situation, assess our own and others’ influence, and further our learning while making practical progress.
We must appreciate it can be difficult in the real world to ask for feedback – and even if you pluck up the courage to make a request, you may not receive an entirely honest response. However, the benefits tend to outweigh the risks of opening yourself up to potential criticism and it gets easier with practice.
Following this process guards against simplistic blame of ourselves or others and allows us to act more effectively as leaders in everyday situations, thereby improving the situation and developing leadership skills simultaneously.
Even if analysis leads to the conclusion a particular organisational process or person was at fault, we can still develop ourselves by working on ways to be positively influential or coming up with a more effective process.
Of course, reflective practice is not a panacea; all approaches to leadership development open up learning opportunities for the enquiring and analytical mind, and reflective practice has its own limitations.
For example, even to get started we have to accept leadership might be a bit more complex and uncertain than we’d like, and there might not be a “right” way to do it.
Other potential downsides include the fact it doesn’t promise quick and simple answers as other approaches do; we have to make an effort to learn differently and we have to stop continually doing things to devote some time to thinking and reflection.
However, it does give us a way forward that doesn’t rely on whether we possess particular character traits, or can behave in prescribed ways – whether we’re male or female or whether we’re in a position of power.
Reflective practice can also pave the way for identity development and personal transformation where we can recognise how different aspects of ourselves that previously seemed contradictory can relate to each other.
This facilitates the development of a coherent and authentic leadership story, and allows us to see and believe in ourselves as leaders.
