From my personal experience, it appears that leadership exhibited by women can be defined from where they are at hierarchically in an organization and if that position leaves space to advance. Out of my four most important jobs, I had the opportunity to work for four female bosses (I had one job with two female bosses) so I really do not have a lot of experience working for a male superior. It is really interesting to take a look at the position of those women while I was working for them.
Two of those women were entrepreneurs. The first one had just graduated from college, did not have a lot of experience and never really held a position of that caliber before. The second had worked for quite a long time in the industry, but again did not have a lot of experience at the level she was at. Both of these women were--according to the chapter--what most people stereotype women leaders to be like. They were both very relationship oriented, which sometimes led to a drop of task orientation. However, both of these leaders were extremely efficient motivators and became well known in their relative industries.
The third woman I have worked for had great experience in the industry and held similar positions in other businesses she had worked for. However, she was also an entrepreneur and the owner of a business. This leader had obviously worked for a long time in a "man's world" and it showed. Her leadership style was essentially the polar opposite of the first two leaders I described. She was extremely task oriented and did not care if she hurt other people's feelings. She was extremely good at what she did and had been well known in her industry for well over 20 years. This leader worked together with the second leader described above, which sometimes caused some conflict in the workplace. The two women had been friends for many years, but their colliding ideals sometimes caused problems in the workplace, especially when one's actions affected the other's job. The relationship-oriented leader was much more visible affected/shaken by conflict than the other.
The final leader was one who was not at the top of her organization, nor her department. She had worked in the same position for nearly twenty years. I have many friends who have worked for her, but no one has had good things to say about her leadership. It was almost as if she was afraid to fall into the women's leadership "stereotype" (for lack of a better term) and it showed in the way she dealt with her employees. She had a complex as though she was in charge of the entire organization and portrayed herself as high and mighty to the point that affected employees outside of their jobs. Maybe she was trying to help, but it apparently did not show. I threatened to quit this job once and she suddenly became relationship oriented. I was apparently the only one in the organization that could do this job and if she lost me, I would be difficult to replace. Why couldn't she just exhibit this need in the first place? Many more people would respect her if she did.
In conclusion, do women need to be more adaptive to situational leadership than men do? Obviously the first two women, who were at the top of their organization, were quite comfortable exhibiting traits of the "stereotype" that chapter discusses. The third woman had been working in a "man's world" for many years and did not change once she hit the top, which she was fine with. The final woman would not let herself to adapt to situations which required her to and as a result, it is safe today, she was a terrible leader. I have not had the experience of having a lower-level manager leader (like the last example) who met the relationship-oriented stereotype of women. Have you had experience with this, or similar experiences to me?
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Unfortunately thus far in my job experiences I have not had too many women in managerment or leadership roles. The only ones that I can think of were the manager of the Dairy Queen I worked at and My manager at the grocery store I worked at. My leader at the Dairy was a very task oriented women and my leader at the grocery store was a good mix of a relational and task oriented leader. After experience both styles of leadership from the women and then looking at the different styles of leadership that I have had from both men and women I would have to say that from my experiences women do not have to change their leadership styles more then men. I think that in today's society every person no matter what gender they are, has to adapt their leadership style to the situation they are in. I do however agree that from my experiences it is easier to relate to and build a more relaxed relationship with the women leader I have had and they may be because of the "stereotype" relational-oriented style.
ReplyDeleteOver all I do not think that women have to adapt more then men when it comes to leadership styles becuase both men and women may have to adapt based on the the responbilities and position they are given. SOme jobs require a more task-oriented and some may require a more relational-oriented leader and I think that both men and women can be both.
Women and men both need to be adaptive at given times and in given situations. A good and effective leader will be able to adapt to certain issues. This means men may need to be more relationship oriented at times and women more task focused at times (according to the stereotypes). I feel there are some men who are worried about the relationship and women that are worried about the task. This will be how things are always. Leaders need to be able to feel out the situation and figure out the best way to lead at a given time and place.
ReplyDeleteI have had a couple experiences with a female supervisor/boss. The first one was for my aunt who is an interior designer/painter and owns her own business. The relationship we already had before me working for her was a close one. She was a major perfectionist and very focused on the task at hand. But overall I feel she focused largely on the relationship with me and the customers. The environment with her was very laid back but yet very detail oriented. I would say she knew how to be a task and relational leader very well.
The other female I worked under was at a distribution center in a paper mill. I met my supervisor once in the beginning of the summer and maybe twice throughout the summer. I then had an evaluation with her at the end of the summer. She did not leave her office very often to talk with me or any of the other employees. She was very task oriented. She always made sure we were doing our jobs in the most efficient and correct way possible. Whenever I would talk to any of my co-workers about her they never had anything good to say. She would step on anyones feet to make sure she looked good herself. She did not have a good relationship with any of the employees in the ditribution center because she never cared about the relationship aspect. This was an experience with a task oriented leader.