The Apprentice, Women and Leadership
It’s interesting and rather refreshing to see the final stages of ‘The Apprentice’ dominated by women. The last 20 years has seen a gradual increase in more women appointed to leadership roles, yet gender equilibrium in corporate life, particularly at senior level, is still some way off despite the politically-correct rhetoric of the modern workplace.
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I’ve no feminist agenda to pursue in depicting women as great leaders, many are not, however I do believe corporations are missing a significant opportunity in overlooking women for leadership roles.
Many women are naturally blessed with attributes that are desperately lacking in male dominated business leadership, specifically emotional and spiritual intelligence, essential components of successful leadership in the 21st century economy.
Women are highly tuned for leadership, it is how self-aware the individual is that decrees how much the skill is transferred into knowledge. In The Apprentice, Kate Walsh has demonstrated her strong emotional intelligence (EQ), as has her fellow finalist Yasmina Siadatan. The two defeated semi-finalists, James McQuillan and Debra Barr, both demonstrated different areas for development, particularly in self-awareness.
McQuillan possesses many EQ attributes, yet lacked assertiveness, and Barr was clearly lacking empathy and awareness around her ability to alienate others. What was encouraging was how Barr’s awareness dramatically increased from the feedback she received in the process. Should she continue to develop her self-awareness, she is destined to become a powerful leadership presence in the business world.
For many women, possessing the essential character traits of the most important leadership role on the planet, motherhood, provides a rich resource of success that largely remains untapped in the workplace. Raising children successfully demands many leadership skills such as a honed intuitive factor, empathy, and a well-oiled decision making ability. What price those attributes in leading business through these turbulent times?
Of course, both genders are capable of learning and improving leadership capability, unlike IQ, emotional and spiritual intelligence (SQ) can be developed, the point is, the very skills that are naturally inherent in many woman are largely ignored in many corporations, much to the detriment of performance.
