Leadership: A Hot Topic

May 20, 2016

On March 4, IPWS began the senior executive topical brunch series for the year, in which 20 women gathered for a casual morning to discuss the topic ‘Honoring the Ways Women Lead.’ While preparation for the Women Leadership Awards & IPWS Leadership Summit has been bubbling away for some time, this particular brunch event sparked several ideas & topics, and helped establish this year’s Summit theme of the ‘Changing Nature of Leadership’.

After mingling and greetings, IPWS was thrilled to introduce Tricia Nadaff, President of Management Research Group, who explored the many ways in which women lead, and shared some inspiring insights on the strengths women have as leaders and how to best grow and develop as a leader.

This is a relevant and crucial topic for any female in the workplace and is particularly relevant for women who are in management positions. Tricia then shared her particular insights on gender differences in leadership and how to authentically lead. After extensive research and focus groups around the world, Tricia and her team found that out of the 22 basic leadership practices, gender differences were found in 17 of them. Women placed much more emphasis on practices such as control, feedback, production and empathy when leading a team; whereas, men emphasize restraint, strategy, delegation, and tradition.

The research demonstrated that there are significant differences in the ways women typically lead compared to men. Tricia also encouraged the women in attendance to understand their strengths and use them to their advantage, while also understanding gender differences and trying to incorporate wisdom and compassion into their organizations.

Discussion ensued following the presentation and women were able to share their experience and outlook on the topic at hand, gathering advice and perspective from around the room.

Tricia has kindly made her research available, and is downloadable in pdf form here: Tricia Nadaff MRG Gender Leadership Study (2.3 MB)