We find in our client work that women leaders will more often use adjectives like “innovative, team oriented, collegial and results driven” when describing successful work cultures than their male counterparts. Also, we find that women leaders are much more likely to confess to feeling personally invested in their work communities than men. On the face of it, women leaders would seem to hold a natural advantage over men arising from their propensity to build and engage in their work communities, but is there any tangible evidence to support this assumption?

In 2006, Tom Peters Company commissioned a survey of women led businesses using our bespoke assessment tool, Re-imagine! Corporate Productivity. “Early findings suggest that women leaders do typically exhibit a leadership style that is more inclusive, open, consensus-building, and collaborative, and results in higher levels of employee engagement, team building, and collaboration” says Juli Ann Reynolds, CEO of Tom Peters Company.

By year-end 2007, TPC will have assessed 100 women-owned and women-managed organisations using R!CP. For comparison purposes, these women leaders will be matched against a representative sample of their male counterparts, representing similar positions, business sizes, and industries.

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