When it comes to accomplishing goals or building a solid workplace relationship, the feminine touch and skills like empathy, intuition and optimism of women work towards the benefit of the company. Journalists and authors of different trade books increasingly assert women advantages in leadership when compared to men.
Their emotional intelligence, passion and helpful nature help to create a healthy workplace relationship and well-rounded workforce.
As such women can bring significant positive changes to the workplace being its part. The various advantages are highlighted below:
Importance of Women in the Workplace:
Unlike earlier days, women nowadays are almost in every sector and most importantly doing well. The workplaces which were male-dominated once now do not exist, with women entering in such business. This might be the result of gender equality or the willingness and confidence of female employees.
There are even few business sectors where women are doing great and have also shown a remarkable growth of themselves in the market, thus proving that they are no less than anyone. Women in the workforce surely have a high impact and some of them are,
- Boost Productivity Levels
- Talented individuals can expand their network
- Constructive communication
- Attract younger workers
- Multidimensional
- Team building
Challenges for Women in Business:
The challenges for women act as hindrances in the path towards success. This is where they need to work hard and be confident to overcome all such issues.
- Women are still depreciated in a few fields
- Gender bias in the workplace
- Being partial during salary negotiation
Opportunities for Women in Business:
- Gender Equality
- Unclassified becoming policy
- Strengthening credentials with a business degree
- Entrepreneurship as the path to leadership
Women Advantages at Workplace:
Though women nowadays are great at work, there are few disadvantages of women in the workplace.
But the main thing is that the advantages that women bring in the workplace is higher is much mightier than its few disadvantages.
1. Flexibility at the workplace:
Increased number of women at the workplace not only has brought several positive changes but it also has made organizations look more closely at the problems of employees.
These positive changes enable employers to address unique issues like helping workers balance professional and family life etc. With more and more women coming to the workplace, the attitude and mindset of employers have been changed.
With the coming of women to the workforce, the management has to bring several new programs and changes that benefit both males and females.
Facilities like childcare, ATM machine at work, work from home, elder care, oil change etc were not offered by the management before women started to enter the workforce.
2. Healthy work-life balance:
When it comes to create and maintain a healthy balance between work and life, women outshine men. From taking care of kids and family to giving excellent performance in office, women master the art of balancing job and family pretty well.
Whether single or married, women understand the value of participating in non-work-related activities. They understand work is not everything, to be productive and happy at the workplace some non-work related activities should be introduced or organized.
Flexible work schedules, work from home facility etc make it possible for women to maintain a good work-life balance.
3. Effective communication for collaborative work effort:
According to experts, women are great communicators as they respond more effectively to visual, verbal, and emotional factors than men.
Women are endowed with strong communication and networking skills using which they can encourage any collaborative or group work efforts.
Usually, who feels discomfort handling emotions prefer to give directives and share competitive stories with team members.
On the contrary, women listen to team members carefully, share ideas, and give the advice to encourage teamwork, while maintaining professionalism.
4. Well rounded workforce:
When it comes to sensitivity and intuition, women outrun men. Their sensitivity, intuition and emotional intelligence help to create a well-rounded workforce. While men lack in understanding one’s unspoken words or emotions, women decode verbal cues and body language easily and this quality makes them a very effective problem solver.
Even a few decades back, women were perceived as irrational, sensitive and emotional creatures who are totally unfit for working outside the home.
But now women are doing better as team leaders than men due to their sensitive nature, which helps them to understand unspoken words or emotions. With this quality, women are able to address and resolve any workplace problems or tension before they crop up.
5. Diversity and multidimensional interest at the workplace:
Women introduce multidimensional and diverse interests at the workplace. While for men after work, socialization only means playing pool or smoking cigar with friends.
Women prefer to do diverse things from painting, watching sports, playing instruments, cooking to playing pool and smoking cigars they do everything with the same enthusiasm.
Because of their multidimensional interests, women bring a new topic to discuss in office, enabling others to share their views on that.
Apart from influencing her employer’s approach towards the benefit of employees, women bring several skills to the office that makes the interaction between people easier.
6. Strong team spirit and feeling of togetherness:
Women value relationships and analyze the problem better. If these mind-blowing characteristics of them are brought into workplace it can result in great team-building or group effort that will work for the benefit of the organization.
Women use their relationship building and communication skill to manage a team efficiently. She can make every employee of her team feel that their effort and contribution have been valued.
No man will lend an ear to listen to other personal problems while women have the patience to hear out and understand your emotions. The compassion she shows with her staff helps to boost their levels of productivity.
Women don’t usually have a command-and-control approach like men, allowing the employees feel good and an important part of a team. A woman can also use this skill to get information and understand others’ point of view.
7. Deal with a tough situation with a smile on face:
Women are calm and tolerant than men, making them to be composed when dealing with a tough situation or radical changes. The modern work environment is full of tension and complexities.
Women, who tend to have quiet and less aggressive nature, can handle these tensions and complexities better than men. Using these qualities they understand any concern better than men and formulate a solution quickly.
Women are mentally powerful than man so handling any tough situation is comparatively easy for them. They can tackle problems efficiently without giving tensions to her colleagues or team members.
When confronted with an adverse situation, women look for the opportunity within. They are optimistic and face a diverse situation with their full power.
8. Motivate others to excel:
Women are givers. When it comes to encouraging other team members around them or allow others to flourish as a more efficient employee, women are the best.
Women are great to inspire and motivate employees at workplace. They understand others’ emotions better and can appeal their unique needs more effectively, enabling them to perform better.
They behave in a generous and friendly way at the workplace to ensure everyone is okay. They try to build an open and friendly environment at work place for people so that everyone gives their maximum effort towards the benefit of the company.
9. Stronger ethics:
Be it morality, transparency or following ethics at workplace, women prefer to do every job with fairness. They believe in fair playing following ethical codes. While most of the men focus on running the business well, women acknowledge the rights and contribution of others in pursuit of fairness.
If more women are involved in the workforce the chances of unethical business will reduce considerably. Using these traits woman can have a well-rounded view of a problem which helps them to make appropriate decisions.
10. More profit for company:
Women are great communicators, negotiator, and analyzers. When it comes to tactfully communicate and to bring more business, no one can beat women. They get into details of any matter, analyze it and come with an idea promptly.
As such they become instrumental in bringing in more profits for the company by making sensible and profitable decisions and deals.
Unlike men they also allow employees to share their perspective or point of view before taking any decision. Improved communication with employees and others also increases the loyalty factor in business relationships.
11. Superb management:
Women are born with a mind-blowing managing skill. From handling board meetings, teaching kids, taking care of the family to cooking they can do every task with much aplomb. They know how much time and skill to allocate where.
With their collaborative style of management, compassion, and intuitiveness they can easily inspire employees to give their best.
While most of the men believe in ‘cross–the-bridge-when-it-comes’ theory, women prefer to do everything with a to-do list.
12. Positivity and optimism:
Women are full of optimism and positivity. For them, the glass is always half-full rather than half-empty. Women can sense opportunities everywhere. They are focused, strategic and keep their eye on the prize.
They are blessed with the power of sensing any sign of danger before it invades. Women effortlessly manage crisis and always try to learn something from it.
What Attributes Make Women in Workplace Better Leaders?
1. Team spirit and team-centered goals:
Women value the relationship and try to understand the need of the employees. When these characteristics of women are brought into the workplace environment, it contributes towards the benefit of the organization.
They are interactive and have tremendous relationship-building power which makes them more likable to all. Using her unique traits in the workplace, she can motivate her staff to put their benefit collaboratively to achieve something good for the company.
2. Great management skills:
Women are endowed with great management skill by birth. From cooking, taking care of a family to motivating a team to achieve something big they can manage everything efficiently.
Their emphatic and collaborative style of management inspires employees to increase their level of productivity.
3. Patience:
Women are patient and have the power to handle any adverse situation logically and efficiently.
From listening to the problems of her employees to tackling rough situations with ease, women can manage everything being patient and calm.
4. Great analyzing skill:
Studies show that women are better in decoding non-verbal cues and subtle emotional messages than men are.
Due to this skill women are able to notice unspoken emotions of confusion, stress and frustration in employees. They can easily identify the problem, boost up morale and can lead them to better productivity.
As women are better in understanding the emotion or problems of others, employees feel comfortable communicating their problems to them, making then great managers or team leaders.
Women focus on employee satisfaction and help them to flourish. Women are practical, professional and great problem solvers.
Why there is Need for More Women Leaders at the Workplace?
A few decades back the term ‘leadership’ was viewed as masculine behavior. People have a preset conception that men can make effective leaders, while women lack this quality as they are overly emotional and sensitive.
But recent researches show that fairer sex makes better leaders and employees. They are blessed with such skills that help them to perform their job and run a business more efficiently than males.
Being intuitive, understanding, persuasive and working collaboratively women can handle a team better than guys.
While men are very authoritative, women use a more participative leadership style to manage a team. They share information, welcome others’ points of views and build strong relational skills which make them seem concerned to their team players.
Women are great communicators, motivators and know how to generate a feeling if togetherness in a team. Women are givers; they enjoy inspiring others to excel in their jobs. This quality makes women brilliant long-term strategic thinkers.
In today’s global market scenario where communication and collaboration are highly valued to achieve success, women have a considerable advantage in the workplace. Women are inclusive, compassionate and believe in the collaborative workforce.
Due to their emphatic nature, they can decode other emotions and build strong work relationships with employees. Blessed with gifts like patience, intuition and optimism women can win everyone’s heart and influence others to give their best to achieve something big.
