When Dr. Judy Rosener published “Ways Women Lead” in the Harvard Business Review in 1990 she put forth the idea that men and women exhibit different kinds of leadership attributes.  She did not say one style was better or worse than the other, but that they were different and that organizations were best served by having both.  She’s been causing an uproar ever since.\n\nJudy has lived her life speaking her mind, being bold and living on the edge.  She was recently our guest at the ASTD OC Organizational Development Special Interest Group to explore gender differences in leadership styles.\n\nHere are some of the generalizations supported by scientific findings and anecdotal evidence in her 25 years of research.\n

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  • Women are holistic thinkers; men are linear thinkers

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  • Women communicate on more than one level at a time; men communicate on one level at a time

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  • Women negotiate in a win/win manner; men negotiate in a win/lose manner

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  • Women are interactive leaders; men are command-and-control leaders

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  • Women view power as a means to an end; men view power as an end in itself

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  • Women are as concerned about process as they are about outcomes; men are concerned primarily with outcomes

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  • Women see relationships as an end in themselves; men see relationships as a means to an end

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  • Women are sensitive to subliminal cues; men pay little attention to subliminal cues

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  • Women are multi-taskers (can do more than one thing at a time); men tend to do tasks sequentially

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  • Women are multi-thinkers (can think about more than one thing at a time); men tend to think of things sequentially

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  • Women are comfortable with ambiguity; men are uncomfortable with ambiguity

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The fact that men and women due to biology and socialization tend to think differently is at the core of why gender matters.  Sometimes we need the male way of thinking and acting and sometimes we need the female way.

\nJudy is working on her third book, currently titled Organizational Intercourse: Men and Women Leading Organizations Together which will surely be a bestseller.