Does Gender Inform Leadership Style?

Thinking about this question makes me think about when I had to facilitate a group of 10th graders. Since it was such a mixed group, I can definitely say that I had to be able to switch off with the way I would facilitate the classes. There were days where I had to be more stern and speak with more authority while other days I can be lenient and laid back. - This switch had nothing to do with it being mixed gendered, though.

Since the group was very mixed - Good girls, conceited girls, divas (as they were called), bad boys, non-english speakers, followers, homosexuals, some with disabilities - I mean, it was really a mixed group of kids and it was my role as a facilitator to give this diverse group of kids a meaningful experience. Same thing goes being a captain of a sports team. Notice I did not recall how many girls and how many boys there were or how many fell into which category. In my instances with leading groups, it just did not matter.

I do not think it was so much what their gender was that made me change my leadership style. It was more about their personality and who they were as a person. Until I came to Chatham, I never had an experience where I had to lead only women. Again, it is not so much about their gender, there are other factors that play into the outcome of the group - either leaving it in a positive or negative position. These other factors are the things that make the leader find a different approach for the group to succeed. Personality traits like being stubborn, having a bad attitude, impatient, not easily trusting - things like that make it harder for a group to progress.

As a leader, one has to be open to trying new techniques to enable the group to prosper. With that, as I have already stated, I do not think my leadership strategies differ when dealing with single-sex versus co-ed. To me, it depends what type of people make up the group, what strategies I will take or not take. One thing that comes to mind now that I think about it is being that I am a woman and working in a group with women, I may have a connection or some kind of unspoken relationship which can possibly make me more lenient with them because I understand them because I am woman myself. Does that make sense?

Until next time,
Teej.