Do Women Make Better Leaders?

I keep seeing articles about how women make better leaders and how we must have feminine-energy based leadership models. I concur…sort of. I think that balanced people make better leaders and we must have balance-based leadership models. Historically, women expressed more interest in exploring issues of personal and spiritual development, so it stands to reason there may be more women who actively integrate masculine and feminine energies than men.

But, a disempowered, off-balance woman and a disempowered, off-balance man are equally detrimental as leaders.

This issue of energies plays out daily in my relationship and my business. My husband is my partner in business and in life. We continually have conversations about power, energy and balance (it’s a never-ending process in our line of work). Through our individual personal and spiritual journeys we’ve discovered how we best operate individually. Through our partnership we’ve discovered how we best operate together. These are extremely important concepts to grasp.

Energetically, people manifest and create differently. I create most effectively when I allow processes to unfold. My husband creates best when he pursues his intended result – two totally different energies. It took us awhile to figure this out. But knowing this and enacting it creates a powerful combination for us. Together we represent a balance of masculine and feminine energies with regard to creation.

Individually, I spent a lot of time (and I do mean a LOT) working through my own issues around masculine and feminine energy. At different points in my life I swung to different extremes. When I was a soldier I honed my masculine energy to exist powerfully in a masculine environment. When I gave birth to my daughter I found myself in unchartered feminine energy territory. The responses and thought-processes that served me so well as a soldier did NOT translate nicely to motherhood. Through my interactions with her I learned new ways of navigating around my world. I felt different…nice.

But it didn’t negate the need for masculine energy. As I journeyed further I started feeling like two different people. I knew how to invoke masculine energy in a business/military environment and I knew how to invoke feminine energy in a home/relationship environment, but I didn’t know how to bring those two together. Thus began the very painful and delicate task of integration.

Integration is the tearing apart, melting down, merging, rebuilding,
pursuit of wholeness.

Only through this process of learning, accepting and empowering both energies within ourselves can we truly be balanced.

And a balanced person is a powerful leader.