Chapter 12- Leadership and Gender

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?