The pandemic taught male CEOs to lead more like women

April 28, 2022

“Simply put, male CEOs across the Fortune 500 and beyond may be learning to lead more like women.”

The gist:

While this “rebirth” of male CEO’s “leaning into their vulnerable sides’” should “certainly be lauded,” per the Fortune article, where are the kudos for women leaders who:

According to 2016 research by the people and organizational advisory firm Korn Ferry, women executives are 86% more likely to employ the competency of emotional self-awareness consistently and 45% more likely to demonstrate empathy.

Such skills have become “even more critical as work and personal lives collided during the pandemic.”

Another fact:

Women are also able to display high competencies in more traditionally "male" leadership qualities like bold leadership, taking initiative, and driving results, according to Harvard Business Review.

During the pandemic, “the CEO role also changed for women,” as “ Executives who are parents, and especially mothers, embraced a new level of vulnerability as previously verboten glimpses into their personal lives, like kids in the background of Zoom calls, became more commonplace.”

And some of the women noted that “bringing their full selves to work was a welcome reprieve from years of demands to tamp down their emotional or vulnerable side.”

The CEO role will continue to change, in fact “as experts look to the future, they expect high CEO turnover in 2022 after low corner office job-hopping in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis.”

And “now that the importance of honing skills like empathy and emotional intelligence has become clear to CEOs and boards in recent years,” the article concludes:

“perhaps the executives tapped to fill vacant roles will increasingly be women—or at least better equipped to lead like them.”

Connect with the Fortune post here.