Blog 30

Blog 30

Old school conventional views about leadership are pretty much pro male and anti female. While there have been changes in the last twenty to thirty years, many still view men as leaders far more than they do women. However, great strides are still being made. Several years ago, Geraldine Ferraro was a vice presidential candidate. Many thought that was the reason her running mate lost the election. At that time, our country was not yet ready for a female vice president or president. Now, in our most recent election, Sarah Palin was a vice presidential candidate and, I think, a large number of people would rather have seen her as the presidential candidate than John McCain. We may not be that far from seeing a woman presidential candidate actually make it past the primaries. After all, Hillary Clinton came fairly close.
If there is anything I have found in my years on this Earth, it is that there are just about as many different leadership styles as there are leaders. Some of these styles are great, and some are terrible. Many, however, fall somewhere in between these two locations. The worst styles are found when someone tries to lead like they feel someone would want them to lead. People can be influenced in how they lead by stereotypes. Stereotypes say that men should be leaders and women should be followers. This is very sexist and very much the opposite of what we have learned in this class. It is very important that people who want to lead think things through and decide the leadership style that is best for them.
According to Linda Tarr-Whelan, Fortune 500 companies that have more women in leadership roles have a thirty-four percent better return than do those companies that have less or no women in leadership. This definitely says something for the idea that women should be in more roles of leadership. Tarr-Whelan goes on to say that, if your company wants to succeed, it should have more women in the upper echelons of leadership. This, in my book, proves that women are far better leaders than most people make them out to be. They are very capable of filling leadership roles.
I mentioned earlier about old school leadership stereotypes. Unfortunately, these stereotypes also say that men are much more aggressive than women in leadership and that this would mean a disaster for anything a woman might lead. Linda Tarr-Whelan’s comment about the higher return for companies with females in leadership shows so very strongly that this stereotype is very wrong.
I also earlier touched on the idea that people striving to be leaders should think about themselves and what leadership style is best for them to use. I have had several female supervisors over the years and I have also had several male supervisors over the years. To this point in time, my female supervisors have often been far better than the male ones. Don’t get me wrong, though, they have all had flaws in their styles. However, several of my male supervisors have been micro micro managers. Yes, I did mean to use micro there twice as that is how they have been. One male supervisor in particular actually wanted to know when one of his employees went to the restroom. I think of one female supervisor I had whose leadership style was to never confront her employees. She might receive numerous complaints, but she hated confrontation, so she would not say anything. Instead, she would go after them on their annual evaluation. She was a very nice woman but she just needed to fine tune her leadership skills. Another female supervisor was fantastic! She believed in thanking her employees constantly for everything they did. She also very nicely spoke with her employees if there was a problem. She also made sure that, if an employee was overwhelmed with their workload, she got them help even if she was the one that helped the person. If it was a constant problem, then she would search for other remedies. That is the kind of leadership companies and organizations need. If someone sees that someone in leadership cares that much and is that willing to help them improve, they will improve and, thereby, increase the companies’ morale and revenue. I am not saying that women are definitely one way and men are definitely one way. I am just relating my experiences. I believe we could all find males in leadership that are great or terrible and we could also find the same in females in leadership. (Word Count – 762)