Despite how well women excel in their respective industries, men still outnumber women in leadership, especially in the top positions.

In fact, the numbers are stark which is why there is much work to be done to achieve an equal number of women CEOs and leaders according to Chris Golis, a leading behavioural expert.

Emotional intelligence practitioner, author and speaker Chris Golis has spent most of his working life examining people’s personalities in order to help him communicate better in business and in life.

Women In Leadership

He believes that the core temperament found in all successful leaders is the desire to win, and this is something that only a few women have compared to their male counterparts. As such, he claims that despite gender diversity limits being set, there is absolutely no chance that there will ever be an equal number of women CEOs and leaders.

In a recent research conducted by CEW (Chief Executive Women) last August 2017 from ASX200 company websites, Mr Golis wasn’t surprised by the result and the lack of women in leadership roles.

The results also showed that men hold 79 per cent of roles in the ASX200 Executive Leadership teams and 41 companies in the ASX200 have no women in their Executive Leadership teams at all.

“At last count, there were just 11 women listed as CEOs in the ASX200, which illustrates there’s a huge mountain to climb if women are to come anywhere near being close to their male colleagues,” he added.

“You become a leader in a large organisation due to three factors: nature, nurture and luck.”

“Luck probably plays the most important part, but studies of identical twins suggest that nature is twice as important as nurture.”

Highlighted below are some of the key reasons why women differ from men when it comes to leadership:

• Winning: Men are strongly dominant and competitive beings and this is the top reason why they are more eager to seek power and leadership roles.
• Projects: Men by nature enjoy their own company and building things while women are more likely to be sociable and into relationships.
• Material Items: A lot of men are known to love their boys’ toys which gives them a desire to work enough for money to afford them. On the other hand, most women are generally less impelled by the need for obvious displays of wealth.
• Communication: Women are generally talkative especially to each other compared to men who tend to be loners, the silent types and see themselves to be strong individuals.
• Security: The home and family are paramount to many women which means they are less likely to risk it all on a speculative venture. For men, they are twice risk takers to engage in start-ups.
• Artistic Creation: Obviously, women are more interested in aesthetics such as fashion and interior designing, likely to spend time on window shopping or browsing on the internet.

In addition to Chris Golis’ study, another good example of the difference why men have greater desires to win is a US study done by Professor Robert Deaner, a Psychologist at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

The study illustrated long distance running which is equally popular among men and women. Professor Deaner studied 1,147 long distance runners competing in the 5,000 metres run in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The said research found out that men were far more competitive at all levels than the female athletes. Thus, it concluded that men and women differed by about half a standard deviation on competitiveness measures which is moderate to large. The study also highlighted that many female runners are more competitive than many of the male runners.

“It also highlighted that many of the female runners are more competitive than many of the male runners.”

Chris Golis is a published author with The Humm Handbook- Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence available to purchase at www.emotionalintelligencecourse.com 

About Chris Golis

Chris Golis has over 40 years’ experience working in the financial, banking, computer and sales industries with roles including CEO, chairman, investment banker and venture capitalist. He now trains people in all areas of business on how to lift their emotional intelligence using his framework to better understand people’s behaviour including their own.