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What is leadership competence for women? (2016)

“Women leaders will do a great service by declining to adopt the worst male leadership traits.”

Jennifer Kenny.
WMBnow 11 July 2016.

“I was thrilled when Sarah Palin was selected by John McCain as the vice presidential candidate in the US 2008 Presidential elections… To me it signalled that women had arrived, we could now have incompetent women leaders – true equality as last!

“We have always had incompetent male leaders, just no one said anything about it, until Thomas Chamorro-Premuzic asked … in Harvard Business Review, ‘Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?’

“He claims that, when it comes to leadership – hubris – is commonly mistaken for leadership potential,

“If we accept the statistics that show that good leadership is the exception and not the rule, why do we … struggle with the recognition that arrogance and overconfidence are so poorly related to leadership talent? Why is it so hard for us to acknowledge that women score higher than men on emotional intelligence, which is a strong driver of modest behaviours?

“If you are a woman leader, or an aspiring woman leader, you will do yourself and those around you a great service by declining to adopt the worst male leadership traits. Instead, focus on the valuable leadership traits of humility, attribution, gratitude, perception, flexibility and power-sharing to mention a few, while acknowledging the reality that, as a society, we (particularly the current leaders who are doing the choosing) confuse confidence with hubris and hubris with competence.”

Access the full blog here: What is leadership competence for women?

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