COMMUNICATION FOR LEADERS 2020
Respectful leadership – A natural for female leaders Collaboration between female managers and male employees can be less productive for several reasons, but respect can turn this around.
Globalization increasingly means employees must collaborate with others who are different from themselves, or who have contrasting expectations. For managers who often have to unify diverse teams, these dissimilarities are challenging. An international team of researchers, including myself, studied how respectful leadership is key in overcoming these challenges, particularly for female leaders..
GENDER DIFFERENCES Research in organizational psychology clearly shows the value of diversity when accompanied by perspective taking (considering viewpoints, feelings, and reactions of others) and sharing informa-
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tion. However, when sharing processes are absent, employees work more smoothly with those who are similar to themselves. Employees also find it easier to work with and for managers who fit their mental image of a manager. Unfortunately for female managers the mental image of leadership is still predominantly male. As a result, female managers working with male employees face two challenges at the same time; they are dissimilar to their employee in terms of gender, and they do not fit the automatic manager image of the employee. Because of this, collaboration between female managers and male employees can be less productive, resulting in lower performance by the employee.
SUZANNE VAN GILS, Lecturer, BI Norwegian Business Schooll
KEY IS TO LOOK BEYOND EXPECTATIONS We propose that respectful leadership could be key to moving beyond initial impressions of gender differences and gender role expectations. Earlier research shows that respect is the most desired aspect of work and that it helps managers develop positive relationships with employees. Respectful leaders acknowledge employees as fullfledged counterparts, they communicate the intention to treat them fairly and honestly and show a genuine interest in the employees’ opinions. A survey of 214 employees and their direct managers confirms that, for female managers, respect positively influences employee performance. This suggests
that respectful leadership helps employees to look beyond their expectations and mental models of managers and move towards productive collaboration. This approach especially benefits female managers working with male employees. The team concluded that respectful leadership, could eventually accustom especially male followers to female leaders, ultimately overcoming the ‘think manager–think male’ stereotype. My more recent research has found that respectful leadership also helps managers who differ from their employees’ expectations due to other differences, such as educational background. Thus, respectful leadership by managers may
