Yahoo Finance Women tend to 'lead in very different ways' than men, author explains
Although diversity is a core asset for companies, women building their careers still face a number of disparities.
A study conducted by Goldman Sachs in March found that women earn more than $20 trillion every year and control one-third of household wealth globally. Yet, they make up just 8% of Fortune 500 CEOs and draw roughly 3% of all venture capital (VC) dollars.
"Those women succeed despite the odds," Julia Boorstin, author of "When Women Lead," told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "I was always so curious, how did these women manage, not only to grow and scale game-changing companies but to do so with such little access to capital, compared to their male counterparts? And what I found is that women lead in very different ways than the traditional archetypal male leadership."
According to Boorstin, who researched more than 60 female executives, women are "more likely to lead with empathy [and] a communal approach to management, so bringing in perspectives from across an organization rather than just top-down management."
She also added that women's leadership styles tend to lean on vulnerability and gratitude — "characteristics which are not traditionally associated with leadership but, in fact, can be leadership superpowers."
The author highlighted Gwyneth Paltrow, founder and CEO of the lifestyle brand Goop, as an example of a woman who leads with vulnerability, noting that Paltrow "had to ask for the CEO role of the company that she started herself, so she had to put herself in a position of vulnerability to do that."
Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who left Tinder to start the female-centered dating site, is another example of an intrepid leader, Boorstin said, noting that "what was really driving her [was] to try to switch the way online dating works and put women in charge."
Unlike other gender-focused leadership advice that encourages women to embrace confidence or lean in to typically male leadership styles, Boorstin said her book aims to highlight stories that show women's leadership traits in action.
These approaches to leadership aren't exclusively held by women, however.
For instance, "servant leadership is an approach that's taken by Howard Schultz, who founded Starbucks, but is something women are more likely to do," Boorstin explained. She added that these examples help to move the conversation around women's leadership styles forward by showing "why it's effective if done by both men and women."
Edwin is a producer for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter @Edwin__Roman.
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