While women are shattering the glass ceiling to become C-suite executives in organisations, the management models highlighted remain more or less masculinised. However, a study by EY Global Delivery Services (GDS) and Avtar exhibits the ‘transformative leadership’ that women observe and thus points out, that women C-suite executives make for good leaders.
The study’s participants include women leaders of EY GDS across the globe, with 79 per cent of them being from India. The goal of the study was to find sustainable professional models for women which can be used to catalyse their growth in managerial positions.
According to this study, women leaders possess greater levels of strategic considering, empathy, agility and being able to hold a team together.
Jaya Virwani, who heads the Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness (DE&I) strategy and the Ethics office at EY GDS that highlighting women in higher management is absolutely necessary. “The tone has changed because more women are walking into the workforce. They are influencing policy decisions to attract more women towards a balanced workforce,” Virwani pointed out.
The research established five leadership models of women C-suite executives: Warrior – the resilient management mannequin, Bootstrapper – the astute management mannequin, Powerhouse – the transformative management mannequin, Savant – the purposeful management mannequin, and Matriarch – the empathetic management mannequin.
Further, this study points out that while a woman leader may take one or a combination of these management routes, it is actually the leadership intentionality that makes all the difference. Leadership intentionality, which we believe is the most crucial one, emerges out of both their upbringing as a child as well as the influences they imbibe in their workplace,” Avtar Group founder & CEO Saundarya Rajesh pointed out.
Having female role models in the upper management does encourage many young executives to further develop leadership intentionality. An organisation’s attitude towards inclusion and diversity can be gauged through the programmes and policies that benefit (or not) women.