At NxtWork, we believe that women leaders bring an innovative force to strategic decision-making. Cynthia Adams and Lani Van Dusen confirmed it in a recent research article. Women in an international dataset to evaluate business leaders—the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP)—appear to be more effective than their male counterparts, on average. Adams and Van Dusen suggest that their creative leadership skills are at the basis of this Feminine Leadership Advantage: a unique ability to generate a long-term sustainable vision and communicating it to others.
Creative leadership competencies encompass various dimensions that contribute to effective leadership. These include the ability to build positive relationships, the focus on self-understanding and balance, honesty and integrity, and awareness of the bigger picture and the community. Developing these competencies enables leaders to lead purposefully, build positive relationships, and achieve sustainable success. A reactive leadership orientation is also important. It is associated with decision-making in changing circumstances and includes the self-esteem derived from achieving personal goals, maintaining emotional distance, and the reliance in meeting other people’s expectations.
Highly effective leaders score high on both dimensions, they are both reactive and creative, but those who identify as women tend to have a slight creative advantage, which is associated to better leadership. A female leader is more likely to have a proactive “playing to win” mindset, driven by her curiosity and commitment to shaping the future. In contrast, while male leaders employ a creative mindset, in the LCP dataset they appear equally likely to adopt a cautious “trying not to lose” approach, focusing on avoiding negative outcomes rather than actively pursuing their goals.
Still, even in the LCP dataset, gender distribution in management levels from the LCP database heavily favors men, even though women exhibit equal competencies and they are more likely to have earned advanced degrees. Adams and Van Dusen’s research shows a great opportunity for companies to seize: letting female talent shine.
Meaningfully engaging women in leadership roles is clearly not only a more equitable choice, but it can also lead to more effective business leadership at the organizational level. NxtWork is here to help bring a leadership team to its full potential.
