Effective Women Leaders

Over the past decade, women have created empowerment programs to overcome gender bias. One of the main impacts of women’s empowerment is the rise of women to leadership positions in organizations and the government. Women leaders inspire other women who are aspiring to be leaders and guide them on how to become effective leaders. For instance, the characteristics exhibited by women leaders act as a guide on how to become successful women leaders. Women in leadership positions also demonstrate the effectiveness of various leadership styles and how they are linked to the characteristics of effective women leaders. Therefore, it is important to understand the main characteristics of effective women leaders and their application in various leadership styles.

Characteristics of Effective Women Leaders in My Organization

Leadership effectiveness is influenced by various characteristics and the use of the right leadership styles. My role as a Customer Advocate II for the pre-authorization department at Blue Cross Blue Shield enables me to interact with various women in leadership positions, thus identifying some characteristics of effective women leaders. One of the characteristics is empathy. Notably, an effective women leader demonstrates straightforwardness, inspirational communication, self-confidence, patience, and empathy (Kooskora & Piigli, 2016, p. 112). The second characteristic of effective women leaders in our organization is active listening. Some of the best leaders, such as Rebecca Halstead, have also exhibited active listening. According to Groysberg & Bell (2011), Rebecca Halstead “was able to go deeper than just the Soldier; she also went down to the family and really got to know the Soldiers’ families, where the kids went to school, what grade they were in, what colleges they went to” (p. 4). Therefore, active listening and empathy are among the main characteristics of effective women leaders, and these are reflected at Blue Cross Blue Shield.

My Leadership Style and How I Could Improve My Leadership Effectiveness

According to Abdulrahman & Amoush (2020), women’s leadership is characterized by specific preferences and characteristics (p. 40). For example, I prefer the transformational leadership style because it makes me feel valued and appreciated by my followers. Transformational leadership includes allocating tasks based on competencies and evaluating performance individually (Khan et al., 2020, p. 2). The main components of transformational leadership include idealistic influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and personalized consideration (Davis & Thilagaraj, 2022, p. 153). Therefore, transformational leaders must take time to understand their followers hence the need for active listening and empathy.

Transformational leadership also includes transforming employees’ quality of work (Korejan & Shahbazi, 2016, p. 453). For instance, Halstead demonstrated transformational leadership by increasing engagement, communication, and accountability using after-action reviews and introducing rotating shifts to reduce burnout (Groysberg & Bell, 2011, p. 7). Consequently, Kooskora and Piigli (2016) argue that transformational leaders use empathy and intuition to manage critical situations and emotions (p. 113). Therefore, I can improve my empathy since I already have good communication skills, including active listening capabilities. I could also increase my leadership effectiveness by acquiring emotional intelligence so that I can respond to my followers’ emotions appropriately.

Conclusion

Becoming an effective leader is a process that requires acquiring and improving leadership characteristics that increase leadership effectiveness. The two characteristics that women leaders should exhibit to be effective leaders are empathy and active listening. These two characteristics are also essential in transformational leadership, which is the main leadership style used by women leaders.

References

Abdulrahman, M., & Amoush, A. (2020). Female characteristics and their new roles in leadership. Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 8(2).

Davis, J., & Thilagaraj, A. (2022). Transformational leadership theory – A critical analysis with reference to banking sector. Webology, 19(2).

Groysberg, B., & Bell, D. (2011). Rebecca S. Halstead: Steadfast leadership ^ 411050. Harvard Business School. https://store.hbr.org/product/rebecca-s-halstead-steadfast-leadership/411050

Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T. H., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout, and social loafing: A mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8

Kooskora, M., & Piigli, M. (2016). Discussion of the leadership profile of female top executives Mari. Journal of Management and Change, 34.

Korejan, M., & Shahbazi, H. (2016). An analysis of the transformational leadership theory. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 8(3), 453. https://doi.org/10.4314/

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Question

Prompt: Describe the characteristics of effective women leaders in your organization. How does your leadership style compare to the characteristics of effective women leaders provided in the resources?