The modern-day leader must direct as well as guide and above all be empathetic and selfless.
by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne
Writing from Montreal
Let us put man and woman together
And see which one is smarter
Some say men but I say no
The women got the men like a puppet show … “Man Smart, Woman Smarter”
There has been much talk, not entirely unjustified, about female leaders whose countries handled the Covid-19 pandemic better than most countries led by male leaders. The basic theory advanced is that women leaders are better at handling a crisis than their male counterparts. The New York Times of 15 May 2020 reported on Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand and other female leaders who performed admirably in curbing the Covid-19 spread in their countries: “Ms. Ardern’s success is the latest data point in a widely noticed trend: Countries led by women seem to be particularly successful in fighting the coronavirus. Germany, led by Angela Merkel, has had a far lower death rate than Britain, France, Italy or Spain. Finland, where Prime minister Sanna Marin, 34, governs with a coalition of four female-led parties, has had fewer than 10 percent as many deaths as nearby Sweden. And Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, has presided over one of the most successful efforts in the world at containing the virus, using testing, contact tracing and isolation measures to control infections without a full national lockdown”.
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| Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand |
Some other female leaders who did well in the crisis were Silveria Jacobs of St. Maarten; Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark and Katrin Jakobsdóttir of Iceland.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) in its latest issue of June 26 2020 carries an article titled Will the Pandemic Reshape Notions of Female Leadership? by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. The authors say: “Countries with women in leadership have suffered six times fewer confirmed deaths from Covid-19 than countries with governments led by men. Unsurprisingly, the media has swelled with stories of their pragmatism, prowess — and humanity. Will these positive outcomes influence our collective readiness to elect and promote more women into power?” They go on to say: “There are not (yet) enough women running countries to legitimately examine gender effects. Women only govern 18 countries or 545 million people globally. That is 7% of the world’s population — an achievement, nonetheless statistically insignificant”.
However small the numbers are in terms of corporate leadership, there are other views that make the debate provocative. For instance, The International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics has published research which claims that female-led companies are more successful than ones led by males. A Pew Research poll found that the public agrees—women make fairer, more compassionate, and more trustworthy leaders than men do. The Guardian, in a recent article posited: “Complicating factors may be at play. Kathleen Gerson, a professor of sociology at New York University, notes, for example, that women leaders are more likely to be elected in “a political culture in which there’s a relative support and trust in the government – and that doesn’t make stark distinctions between women and men. So, you’ve already got a head start”.
The Guardian goes on: “In addition, it may be harder for men to escape “the way they are expected to behave” as leaders, and since the very best leaders are both strong and decisive and capable of displaying feeling, women could, perhaps, “lead the way in showing that these are not competing and conflicting attributes, but complementary – and necessary for good leadership”.
Famed behavioral biology professor Melvin Konner has said “[W]omen are fundamentally pragmatic as well as caring, cooperative as well as competitive, skilled in getting their own egos out of the way, deft in managing people without putting them on the defensive, builders not destroyers. Women’s superiority in judgment, their trustworthiness, reliability, fairness, working and playing well with others, relative freedom from distracting sexual impulses, and lower levels of prejudice, bigotry, and violence.”
What this dichotomy presents is that one cannot ascribe a reasoned affirmation of the basic proposition that women leaders perform better than their male counterparts in handling a crisis nor can one disagree and dismiss the claim. After all China, South Korea and Sri Lanka performed extremely well and efficiently under male leadership.
The more sensible middle path or compromise would be to go on the basis that one does not have to wait for a huge crisis like a global pandemic or a more localized catastrophe such as a tsunami to come to the realization that people are generally protected better when their leaders are smart, honest, unpretentious and modest. HBR says: “But we are glad to see the public, and especially the media, fall in love with the leaders who display these qualities — daily and publicly — while keeping their nations safe at the same time. It’s a lesson we think will bear fruit, and multiply.”
Whatever the merits and demerits of considering this as an epistemic exercise, it all boils down to the discussion being an adventure in sexism. The author has seen no concrete evidence presented scientific or otherwise that one of the sexes is more intelligent or more competent than the other. Whether one is male or female, there are certain characteristics that distinguish a leader from a follower. Leaders who are moral and ethical would know the Greek proverb “Know thyself” and watch out for their mistakes and improve on areas where they are weak in. They need to fix their weakest parts whether they are in leadership of countries, corporate entities or the higher echelons of the civil service.
Rasmus Hougaa and Jacqueline Carter, in their book The Mind of the Leader cite four critical factors sought by today’s workforce or those who are governed: meaning; human connectedness; true happiness; and a desire to contribute positively to the world. Today’s leader must be connected to herself and to those around her and have a sense of purpose. She should lead the people towards that sense of purpose. Peter Drucker famously said: “[Y]ou cannot manage other people unless you manage yourself first”. James Comey, former Director of the FBI, in his book A Higher Loyalty states that the ethical leader does not, and indeed should not demand loyalty from his workers. Rather, he should seek commitment and a meeting of the minds between himself and his workers and make the workers’ lives meaningful and fulfilling. The modern-day leader must direct as well as guide and above all be empathetic and selfless.
Finally, the true leader must be an effective communicator and fixer upper. She must take decisions quickly. The Harvard Business Review cites as the main reason for leaders, CEOs and Presidents of corporations that lead them to be fired as their inability to take decisions, right or wrong. This brings one to the conclusion of Peter Drucker: “a manager is a person who does things right and a leader is a person who does the right thing”.
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