Women & Power – Why Don’t They Get It?
Just read this interesting article on Harvard Business Review by Jeffrey Pfeffer – Women and the Uneasy Embrace of Power. He discusses how, although women are graduating from college in record numbers, they are still not ascending to positions of power in noticeable numbers. He makes 2 recommendations:
1. Women need to be willing to make more trade-offs to attain power.
2. Women need to be tougher.
Needless to say, this article has provoked some great comments and discussion. Read it here and tell me – do you agree?
Do women need to be tougher?
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Please read my commentary on Jeffrey Pfeffer’s article here:
http://dohashawki.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/are-women-reluctant-to-assume-power/
While there are absolutely differences in how women and men approach leadership and conflict management, Jeffrey Pfeffer’s analysis presents us with Hobson’s choice – women can gain power or they can retain their values and socialization. There’s more to the issue than that.
The McKinsey Quarterly recently published a piece on centered leadership, a leadership model that values connecting with others.
There are five capabilities at the heart of centered leadership: finding meaning in work, converting emotions such as fear or stress into opportunity, leveraging connections and community, acting in the face of risk, and sustaining the energy that drives change. Perhaps they indicate an alternative route to power.
The article on centered leadership is available at https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/How_centered_leaders_achieve_extraordinary_results_2678