Giving Compass' Take:

• The author offers insight as to how forward-thinking leaders can employ more typically feminine qualities such as receptivity, connection, curiosity, and listening which will help advance leadership roles and responsibility. 

• Are these traits usually only associated with women? How will they lead to success? 

• Read about inclusive leadership: sharing the power, building powerful voices. 

In the mid-20th century, being a conscious company seemed like something of a fringe luxury for the high-and-mighty and doomed to feel good but perform badly. In these simpler systems, a handful of smart people sitting at the top of a sprawling system of command-and-control decision-making could still produce results. This tell-you-what-to-do model was built on traditionally masculine qualities: confidence, clarity, assertiveness and focus. Well-balanced and properly directed, these traits can be extremely powerful. Out of balance, though, they can wreak havoc—and we all pay the price.

In today’s faster and more interconnected world, no one person — no matter how smart or sophisticated — can hope to connect all relevant dots. More typically feminine qualities of receptivity, connection, curiosity, listening and relationship are increasingly important to success. As Tina Young underscored in an earlier issue of Conscious Company, both male and female leaders can master feminine leadership qualities, and the most successful leaders will.

  1. Radical Receptivity: Be Open Always, In All Ways: People will rally to problem-solve with you if they are treated with respect and compassion. There is no substitute for integrity and humility.
  2. Wholehearted Connection: It Always Starts With Us: It turns out we can’t selectively shut out only the bad stuff. And if we want openness from others, we often have to go first.
  3. Rabid Curiosity: Never Stop Learning: With disruption coming from all sides, being open to new insight is a crucial business asset.
  4. Deep Listening: Wonder What is Beneath the Surface: Those who are open to surprising new insights will win, while those who behave as though they have it all figured out have already lost.
  5.  Fierce Relationships: In the End, They’re the Only Thing That Matters 

Read the full article about forward-thinking leaders from CONCIOUS COMPANY at B the Change