We’re going to finish today with our look at emotional intelligence, one of the important personality traits a female business leader needs to possess and perfect.
Social Awareness. This is another personality trait that demonstrates a high emotional IQ in a female business leader. No matter the business you will probably be working with a group of people, whether they are employees, co-workers or clients. And when you get a group of people together you get an interesting mix of personalities. A socially aware leader notices the interplay between members of the group; who gets along with who, who has good ideas but is shy to express them.
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
Digg This 
Del.icio.us
February 6, 2009
Last time we were talking about the importance of assertiveness for success as a business leader. Anyone wanting to be a leader but lacking confidence and assertiveness skills will not be able to stand up for their interests.
Let’s get back to those steps for assertiveness.
Step 3 – Pay attention to how you say things.
In Step One I talked about how you need to be clear about what you want to say. How you say it is just as important. How you say something has an effect on how the person receiving the message responds to you. An assertive communicator will start sentences with “I feel” rather than “you should”. This keeps the focus on the problem at hand without pointing fingers and laying blame. If the person you are talking to feels they are being “attacked” they will not listen to what it is you are trying to say.
Step 4 – Take responsibility for your part in the problem.
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 4" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 8, 2009
Call it inclusive leadership, participatory management or inclusive decision making; it’s a leadership style and a personality trait that involves everyone in finding solutions to a problem. And, according to the study I mentioned in the first installment of this series, this is one of the strengths of successful female leaders.
How many of you dread company meetings?
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 5" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 11, 2009
We’re talking about how inclusive leadership as a personality trait will encourage and influence employee participation. A smart female business leader will benefit from incorporating this technique into her repertoire of tools.
And speaking of personality traits, it seems to be human nature to resist change, especially if it’s change we don’t understand. Long-term employees may resist because they’ve seen things come and go before and believe that this is just a fad too. Your role as the boss is to take the lead. If you’re consistent and genuine your employees will take their cues from you.
Female business leaders who use inclusive leadership excel at sharing information. And this doesn’t mean standing at a podium in the conference room. A formal meeting like that has its place but a boss who wants employee trust and respect will talk to them, face-to-face, in their offices and around the water cooler. Having an open office door policy is a good idea too. Encourage people to ask questions and openly discuss what is going on in the company.
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 6" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 13, 2009
Would it surprise you to learn that most people find it difficult to work as part of a group? We’re talking about inclusive leadership as a personality trait shared by successful female business leaders. Inclusive leadership means you work with your employees as a team. To be effective any team has to learn to work together while taking advantage of individual strengths.
Training is the key to putting together a team that will make any female business leader proud. There are two areas on which training should focus; collaborative decision making skills and company or industry specific expertise.
Attempts at collaborative decision making often result in conflict because individuals have different ideas and goals. The group needs to be taught the “rules”, such as defining the problem, brainstorming ideas, and picking the best solution. A smart female business leader knows the time spent learning these skills will pay off; your employees will enjoy the chance to improve their own personality traits!
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 7" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 15, 2009
Managers who aren’t really on-board think inclusive leadership is limited to a suggestion box by the photocopier. A smart female business leader knows there’s more to it than that. Good inclusive leadership programs begin with the manager being prepared to give up some control.
Yikes! Job security often seems to revolve around insecurity and the feeling that you must be incompetent if you turn to others for help. That’s not what inclusive leadership is about and insecurity is one personality trait you don’t want to have. You must approach it confident enough in your position that you can be open to ideas from others. That confidence might be another personality trait you want to cultivate in yourself.
Successful female business leaders give employees a say in final decisions. That is a big step and perhaps the pinnacle of a good inclusive leadership program. Sometimes just offering alternatives for the employees to choose from will reap the same benefits as having them come up with the alternatives themselves; motivation and job satisfaction grow. Some areas that you might allow employees to make decisions about include work schedules and budgeting for supplies and equipment.
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 8" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 17, 2009
For the last while I’ve been telling you about some personality traits that were identified in a survey as most important for successful female business leaders to possess. Today I’m talking about the art of persuasion.
According to the Caliper survey I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, females have to be more persuasive because they lack the physical presence of most men. That doesn’t mean that men impose their ideas on people, men can be very persuasive too. Women just have to be better to get the same results.
Effective female business leaders use persuasion to communicate in a way that inspires and motivates. Employees are happy to cooperate to get the job done and customers enjoy being a client. Persuasive leaders build trust by being honest.
Being persuasive should not be perceived as a sales job; people hate that! It makes them feel they are being tricked.
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 9" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 19, 2009
The last of the Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders, persuasive communication, has three components. Each of these components is effective on its own but taken together they make for an incredibly persuasive communicator. If you are a female in business you will want to keep reading!
1. Building Credibility. If employees or clients feel you don’t know what you’re talking about they will tune you out. People become managers for a variety of reasons; dumb luck, personal connections, they bought the store and because they can do the job.
Truly successful female business leaders keep their position because they have expertise and they have spent time building credibility.
A credible person is prepared and knows what they are talking about. Preparation also involves predicting possible objections and having believable answers.
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 10" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 21, 2009
This is the last of my installments about personality traits for successful female business leaders.
This last component is crucial for persuasive communication. If you can’t present your information in a way that people understand and that builds confidence your project or sale will never get off the ground. It won’t matter to them how much credibility you have or how much you have in common with your audience.
3. Develop a Compelling Position. Your reasons for making changes at work or for why a client should use your services have to make sense. Any successful business leader will have the facts straight and will be able to present them in a compelling way that is easy to understand.
I’ll use President Obama as an example again.
Continue reading "Four Personality Traits of Female Business Leaders – Part 11" »
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
February 24, 2009
Have you ever tried to talk to someone who wasn’t listening? For a business manager trying to make your company or team as productive and successful as possible, that can be very frustrating. And it costs money. People who don’t pay attention make mistakes.
Sometimes it’s just as important for the person in charge to listen. Maybe you’ve had a conference call with an important client and, because you were trying to “multi-task”, you weren’t sure what you had agreed to when you hung up the phone. That kind of inattention causes embarrassment and it will affect the bottom line as well.
Active listening takes patience. Work schedules can be hectic and slowing down for a minute or two to really listen isn’t easy. Why should a manager care about having active listening skills? Shouldn’t the employees just do what they are told?
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)
|
Disclaimer: The entire contents of this blog/website/community are based upon the opinions of the blog expert, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles or comments are based upon the opinions of the respective author. The information on this blog/website/community is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of the blog expert and his/her community. Health experts herein encourage you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The information on this blog/website/community is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified medical professional and is not intended as medical advice. The information on this blog/website/community is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified professional and is not intended as a replacement for legal, business, accounting, financial or other professional advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of the blog expert and his/her community. Experts herein encourage you to make your own decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified professional in the area of your need. The information on this blog/website/community is written in general and not intended to replace your one-on-one relationship with a qualified professional and is not intended as professional advice for your personal situation. |