‘Act like a woman’ to climb career ladder
Girls’ school leader says team players who show feminine side do better than ‘alpha males’
Professionals looking to get ahead should “act like a woman”, the president of the Girls’ School Association has said. Heather Hanbury argued that being an empathetic “team player” was better for business than the “alpha male” model of leadership. Mrs Hanbury said “feminine” qualities were increasingly sought after in the workplace. These include being more collaborative and collegiate while making decisions in a more “democratic” way.
THE most effective way to make strides in your career is to “act like a woman”, the president of the Girls’ School Association has said.
Heather Hanbury has argued that being an empathetic “team player” is better for business than the traditional “alpha male” model of leadership, and this approach comes more naturally to girls.
Professionals looking to get ahead should embrace what are seen as “feminine” skills at work, the head teacher has said .
She said: “The world would certainly be a more generous, happier place with more empathy, sympathy and collaboration in it.
“Research shows, time and again, that tapping into these ‘soft skills’ that align with feminine qualities, delivers improved results across the board: in the world of work and of politics. Everyone will benefit if more of our leaders act like women, or indeed are women.”
Mrs Hanbury leads the Girls’ School Association (GSA), which represents the heads of the single-sex schools in the UK, institutions she has described as “safe spaces” for girls to develop “feminine” qualities, which are being increasingly sought after in the workplace.
These approaches to work include being more collaborative and collegiate while making decisions in a more “democratic” way, Mrs Hanbury has said, as opposed to the competitive, glory-seeking and individualistic “traditionally male” approach long considered the model for leadership.
The GSA president has claimed that co-operative leadership styles for which girls have a natural propensity are now prized in the workplace, citing a 2020 Goldman Sachs study that suggests female-led investment fund teams outperformed all-male teams, and Australian studies suggesting countries led by women suffered fewer Covid-19 deaths.
Mrs Hanbury said: “Traditionally, many women, and girls learning as they come through school, are told that the way to succeed in the world is to act like a man.
“The opposite is proving to be of more interest, and frankly, more successful.”
While women might be predisposed to these collaborative behaviours, Mrs Hanbury has argued that “whatever their background, whatever their gender, whatever academic interest they have, whatever their goals in life ... these are the traits all young people should be encouraged to develop”. She
‘Research shows that tapping into soft skills that align with feminine qualities delivers success’
added: “It is for anyone, and the more people who recognise that and act in this way, the better it is for all of us.”
Girls’ schools offer a place for female students to “practise” without pressure, Mrs Hanbury said, adding: “These spaces are where it’s safe for girls to have a good old argument about things, to disagree about things they are passionate about.
“We are building that confidence outside the threat of gender bias and misogyny and those sorts of things.”
Mrs Hanbury, who leads the Lady Eleanor Holles school in London, an independent girls’ day school, will address 150 heads at the GSA conference on the virtues of female leadership this week. She will tell the conference, in London, that girls’ schools are vital in turning out “empathetic human beings who will disrupt the outmoded myopic, competitively driven alpha-style culture that so often ends up in burnout”.