Yesterday I was reading an article in Forbes magazine written by a man who grew up in an extended Hispanic family. He was writing about the strength and resilience that his mother had shown raising him and his siblings.
He thought his mother would have made a great leader.
The truth is she was a great leader. Leading a family can be hard, thankless work. And let’s face it, despite huge progress, the family still tends to be thought of as women’s work. This is especially true in developing countries where women’s access to education and basic freedoms can be severely limited.
So what is it that makes women so awesome?
The article identified 7 main personality traits that make women hugely effective leaders. See you if you recognise any of these from your family life and think how you can apply them to your work or business:
- Multi-tasking – The ability to take action in several different areas at once.
- Circular vision – The ability to talk and offer opinion on an extremely wide variety of subjects.
- Opportunity management – Anticipate needs or crisis points well in advance of them becoming problematic.
- Highly collaborative – Happy to discuss, debate and try different approaches.
- Less afraid to fail – Women are more likely to see failure as feedback and therefore a necessary part of success.
- Authentic – Women seek to find the meaning and purpose in each opportunity.
- Patient – Women like to see and understand the connectivity of thoughts and how they work or why they don’t. They want all the facts and figures before making important decisions.
To me that sounds like an average day at home, fire-fighting the conflict between small children, scooping the remains of dinner into Tupperware whilst skyping Grandma overseas, trying out different ways of making a play-doh dinosaur, sourcing school supplies, checking the news while filing my nails, washing dishes before we run out of plates.
Just another day at the office.
This all reminds me of something a great friend of mine used to say: Raising a family is so important that you’d better get a woman to do it.
What do you think? Does being a woman help or hinder? Is saving the world one of many things that’s so important we’d better get a woman to do it?
Dr Joanna Martin: Founder, oneofmany.co.uk.| Author| Women’s Speaker| Entrepreneur| Ex-doctor| Loud Sister| Baby Wrangler = No professional training but do a fine job nonetheless!
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