The Number ONE Leadership Skill Most Women Ignore
Many women have been taught to believe that only by behaving in a masculine manner, mirroring the behavior of the men in power around them, can they move up the ranks in leadership roles. We’re told that it’s a man’s world, and only by emulating their postures, their mannerisms, their speech patterns, can we be respected and valued in positions of power and rank.
Once women attain these ranks, however, negative responses such as double standards and name-calling set in. A woman may have attained her position by behaving like a man, but when she actually acts like her male counterparts, then she’s called a bitch. If she shows emotion, then she’s a weak little girl. As such, she can’t be trusted to negotiate with others because she might start to cry instead of standing her ground and radiating power.
We’ve grown so accustomed to the ruling patriarchy, to the masculine power that has ruled both nations and corporate boardroom tables, that we’ve been inundated by the idea that channeling said masculinity is the only way to achieve our workplace goals.
The truth, however, is quite the opposite.
Some of the strongest women in positions of corporate power are those who, instead of trying to forge a masculine path, have instead channeled their feminine power to achieve greatness.
There’s an incredible leadership skill that most women have repressed and been taught to ignore, but it’s that very skill that can be our greatest asset: our intuition.
Tapping Into The Feminine Power of Intuition
There is immense strength in women’s natural abilities, and drawing from innate feminine power can be the most important thing a woman does to attain success in her chosen career path.
Women are naturally intuitive, and a woman’s ability to both read nonverbal cues and empathically tune into other people’s emotions creates an incredible advantage when it comes to interpersonal relationships.
These are specialized skills that many men lack. By attempting to channel only masculine energy, women can sabotage their own goals instead of fast-tracking towards success.
Statistics have shown that when a woman is on a board—even just one woman—the revenues of a company will increase by 35 percent. This is because a woman can go into a negotiation room and find a compromise that works well for both parties. She can understand the values of either party, can work with them so that their positions benefit each other, and create a solution that would serve both parties equally.
Feminine intuition can also be used to visualize what kind of sales strategies above and beyond what have already been considered should be used to exceed projected revenues.
When a woman taps into her innate intuition, she can not only see the vision for the company itself, but uses that vision intuition to see which steps are needed to manifest it into reality.
She can see which types of strategic partnerships will work best for the company, and her natural strength in respecting others and negotiating for the greatest common good means that she can cultivate great rapport with everyone involved. This is ideal for long-term partnerships, as people prefer to work with those whom they trust—those who take the time to understand and respect them.
Many men are strong, powerful leaders, but they fall flat at the negotiation table. This is because many of them use aggression and strength instead of the far more effective feminine skills such as diplomacy, compromise, and negotiation. In a word: “intuition”.
Embrace Feminine Intuition and Energy in All Aspects of Life
Women often do themselves a massive disservice by channeling masculine energy instead of tapping into their feminine power.
This isn’t to say that masculine energy is at all negative, or should be avoided at all costs. Far from it. Male energy is incredibly powerful, but should merely be used when the right situations call for it, such as when focused action is required.
For example, a burst of masculine energy can help to kick-start the action needed when you need initiative to meet a specific goal. When you’re ambitious, and you have a set goal, that male energy can help to launch the initiative and set things in motion. It is active energy, rather than passive, and can be used to great effect to balance feminine power.
Think of the yin-yang symbol, and how true balance is achieved when either energy source has a small amount of the other integrated within it. Though we can, and should, draw the majority of our power from our feminine energy, we can also draw from the male energy that exists within us when we need it.
Many women who are in very powerful leadership roles know how to use small amounts of that masculine energy to help them achieve their goals, to make the difference they want to make in the world, but they also know that it’s their feminine energy that will help them to maintain said power.
It’s the feminine leadership qualities such as relationship building, and how to think strategically, that are immensely valued. They not only increase productivity, but encourage and inspire others, and help all involved to work as a dynamic team.
Home and Community Life, Mirrored in the Workplace
The same techniques that a woman uses to maintain balance and harmony in the home can be channeled into leadership in a workplace environment.
An ideal leader is one who recognizes their greatest abilities, and then delegates other tasks to those who are best suited to them. This also ensures that the leader gets the support they need, while also keeping others happy doing tasks that they can excel at.
Women also tend to be natural organizers, so they can harness their energy to create a schedule that all can adhere to, which ensures that team goals are met, and projects are completed on time.
Consider the intuition, relationship cultivation, and delegation that women may use with their children, in parent-teacher associations, in neighbourhood projects, and in spiritual community outreach programs. These are invaluable skills that most people take for granted or even dismiss, instead of acknowledging and celebrating as crucial when it comes to cultivating long-term, successful working relationships.
Assigning tasks several neighbors and organizing a calendar to ensure that a community project runs smoothly is really no different from delegating tasks to a team in a Fortune 500 company. It’s merely a different environment, or a larger scale, but the intuition, the skills, are exactly the same.
Women are born with these abilities, and it’s by acknowledging them, cultivating them, and celebrating them, that she can—and will—achieve her dreams.
When a woman taps into her feminine power, whether in her home life, her community, or in a corporate environment, she can truly move mountains.
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If you’re ready to step into your feminine power to magnetize bigger leadership opportunities for 2018, I have a special gift to send your way…
It’s the Veza 2018 Goal Setting Intention Guide.
This is a special workbook I’ve created for our community (for free) to help you review your year and set intentional goals for the year to come by tapping into your innate feminine leadership skills. I highly recommend downloading it!
Download your copy of the Veza 2018 Goal Setting Intention Guide here
p.s. After you grab your copy be sure to join us over in our private Facebook Community where we’ll be completing the workbook together and masterminding to create a game plan to magnetize your dream career in 2018.
Ishu Kler is a photographer and Social Media Manager at Veza Global. She currently owns and operates a freelance photography company called Ishu Kler Creative where she specializes in branding, portrait and event photography. Born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., her love and passion for photography led Ishu to travel and live in New Delhi, India, where she obtained her Diploma in Photography. She also travelled to Costa Rica in 2015, where she obtained her Certificate in Documentary Photography from Photographers Without Borders.
Kelsey is a passionate Multimedia Designer & Communications Specialist with a diploma in Multimedia Production and over nine years of diverse design experience in different areas of the world including roles within multinational in-house marketing teams Microsoft and Technetix, marketing agencies and freelance. These experiences have led her to develop strong use of design principles, skills in Adobe Creative Cloud, knowledge in motion graphics and video editing, and knowledge in creating effective communication for a wide range of audiences and cultures.
