Are Men and Women Equally Effective Leaders?

Dear friends -

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review titled "Stop promoting incompetent leaders". It caught my eye because I often speak on leadership and gender and teach a course at UC Irvine called Women & Leadership.

The article states that there are too many incompetent men in leadership positions — in large part because businesses tend to promote people on the basis of charisma, confidence, and even narcissism. Remember that overconfidence is a natural result of privilege, which is often linked to gender. 

I think most of us can agree that companies should be putting people in charge who demonstrate competence, humility, integrity, and empathy. So, is competence or confidence more important?

Numerous studies have shown that overall, men and women are equally effective leaders, yet we have different styles in how we lead. But what’s really compelling, is that a recent analysis of 95 studies on gender differences showed that when it comes to leadership skills, although men are generally more confident, women are more competent.

Can this impact how men and women are perceived as leaders? You bet.

Data from UC Berkeley shows that confidence is more important, although that’s not what most people believe. Most people dedicate years of their life making sure they have the right technical competence for their given field. Of course you need to be proficient enough to do your job, but most of us (especially women) prioritize being competent and underestimate the power of confidence.

The Berkeley study showed that team members who speak up and appear more confident, are perceived by others as competent to lead, even if they lack competence in the subject matter. Even though they lacked skills, the most dominant personalities were rated the highest for qualities such as general intelligence, conscientiousness, dependability, and self-discipline.

At the same time, subjects perceived less outspoken team members as having less desirable traits, giving them high scores for being conventional and uncreative. These findings suggest that dominant individuals can ascend group hierarchies and attain influence simply by appearing confident and speaking up. For women, these are important findings because—while this may be troublesome—confidence tops competence!

As stated earlier, the reason so many incompetent men rise to leadership levels is because businesses tend to promote based on confidence, charisma or even personal relationships. This is also the reason that many more men serve on corporate boards than women.

Men tend to lead with a transactional style (an even exchange of transactions between leader and follower - think quid pro quo). Women tend to lead with a transformational style (based on collaboration and collective problem solving & decision making). This style focuses on ethics, values, emotions, and long-term goals.

Although our styles and traits differ, both men and women can be competent and effective leaders. If you’re responsible for assessing leadership candidates, you should work on your ability to distinguish between confidence and competence.

You can do this through specific behavioral interviewing questions, scientifically valid assessments of personality and emotional intelligence, 360 interviews and feedback, and consistently evaluating performance and effectiveness measures.

These actions will help ensure more competent future leaders of all genders.

You can find more information on my website drshawnandrews.com or my book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide.

Wishing you the best of luck in your leadership!

Dr. Shawn