Female Leadership in action
Veredus held the third in a series of very successful female leader’s events in sunny Bristol last month, where once again over 100 delegates gathered to listen to a range of speakers.
Delegates were able to share their experiences in a positive and welcoming environment. Over 500 people had expressed an interest in this event and everyone had high expectations. People were not disappointed as the quality of the speakers was exceptionally high and all were excellent examples of female leadership at it best. The event offered opportunities to reflect on leadership styles, explore what leadership means for females and identify the successful traits of female leadership in action. Leadership is ever changing and needs to be adapted to different situations. Although there is no one style which provides a blue-print for successful leadership, a common trait in successful leaders is their ability to engage with their staff. Jan Ormondroyd, who was just eight days into her new role as Bristol City Council Chief Executive, opened the conference with lots of positive messages about her journey to the top and the challenges she has faced.
Research shows that female leaders are more likely to adopt a more engaging style of leadership - the style which has been found to be prevalent in successful organisations. As Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe, Professor of Leadership and Chief Executive of Real World Group reported “Our research has shown that irrespective of the sex of the direct report rating their manager anonymously; in general female managers are perceived to be more engaging in their leadership style and behaviours than male managers.” Beverly went on to describe what engaging leadership looks like in practice “It is a form of leadership that is essentially shared between equals in which all parties choose to combine their efforts, strengths, experiences and aspirations in working towards a shared vision, so as to sustain the highest levels of effectiveness. Engaging leadership requires working in highly collaborative ways, so that appreciation is mutual and has a positive and strengthening effect on all those involved. It disregards the status associated with positional roles within the organisation and emphasises a distributive rather than heroic model of leadership.”
In her key note address, Caroline Tapster, Chief Executive of Hertfordshire County Council, emphasised the need for a variety of leadership styles in order to meet today’s complex challenges. She suggested that 21st century managers essentially need to be both influencers and collaborators who focus on developing relationships with partners and stakeholders as well as with their staff. Caroline also offered her “Tapster’s Tips” to successful leadership.
- Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses - if you have a particular weakness work on it, and if you are particularly good at something, share that with others.
- Be open to challenge and seek feedback, respond in a positive way and be open to new ideas.
- Listen to others, the spoken word is as important as the unspoken word.
- Grab opportunities that come your way even if they take you outside of your comfort zone - network and put yourself into situations that you are not always comfortable in
- Use of a coach and mentor who you can share ideas with and who will give you honest advice.
- Surround yourself with good people and learn from them - don’t be a ‘know it all’as nobody will want to work with you.
- If you are unsure say so – ask for help and support – this can create goodwill and commitment from others.
Claire Clancy then gave her thoughts on the topic of leadership. Claire has worked across a variety of organisations which have differed culturally; she went from Chief Executive of Companies House to Chief Executive of National Assembly for Wales. This change involved making the transition from working in a commercial environment to managing a political organisation. Claire’s thoughts of effective leadership and what it can look like had some synergies with Caroline’s. “It is important to surround yourself with excellent staff to get things done; building teams is a top priority. Set out your expectations clearly and support your leadership team especially at times of pressure. You must be willing to take risks and do the hard tasks that you may normally shy away from, trust your instincts. People look to you for guidance so it is important to push yourself and be decisive. Also be empathetic and show genuine concern- you have to mean it.” She saw her most important legacy as the team she is building, so that in the future strong leadership in the organisation is assured. She wants to surround herself with people who could do her job better than her! Another strong theme from Claire was that you must tackle the difficult situations and do things differently with a fresh approach and be prepared to take risks – “the risk must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing” Claire also stresses it is important to have fun in your role and not to take yourself too seriously! Life is for living and working life is for living too, so you should enjoy it
Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe also shared her thoughts on leadership and what it means for modern day managers “Leaders need to take account of the impact of their decisions and behaviors on colleagues’ motivation and commitment, not least of which because this will affect their performance. They need to recognise that working on building a shared vision, and involving staff in determining how it will be achieved, will significantly increase the chances of success.”
The practical challenges for organisations in adopting an engaging leadership style are clear, “It places enormous responsibility on the most senior managers accepting that they are potentially the greatest barrier to creating a truly ‘engaging’ culture. It means that they need to recognise that they can no longer seek to influence others by forms of control and authority, and that most of all, if they are to truly be an effective leader they have to have both humility and humanity, together with a willingness to expose themselves and their ideas, in public, to the scrutiny of their staff on a daily basis.”
The honest accounts provided by the conference speakers on their perspectives on leadership and what it has meant to them and their careers, were both refreshing and uplifting. The common message was that 21st century leaders need be adaptive, learn from their mistakes, but at the same time learn to do things differently. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe summarises “Adopting engaging leadership behaviour within a work-place setting requires that managers at all levels consider themselves to be ‘servant’ leaders who are more dependent on the permission of their staff to fulfil their leadership role, rather than the other way round. In short, engaging leaders do all they can to support those on the front-line by creating the culture in which engagement is ‘how we do everything around here’.”
The day ended with group discussions on doing things differently. Would people change their approach and style? Would people adopt more engaging styles of leadership or do females have that natural style already? Everyone had a different story to tell and people left the event with much food for thought. Veredus will be looking to tackle the topic of effective leadership without gender bias at its next event. After three successful events for female leaders, delegate feedback has indicated that it is time to look at the bigger picture - we have all learnt a lot from these events and hope to learn more from a wider audience in the future.