The Case for more Women in Leadership

By Bjorn Christian Martinoff

 Our world is in trouble. We are in trouble. Business cares more about the bottom line than customers. Politicians care more about sponsors than voters.

What do women have to do with it? Or better what does the lack of women in leadership have to do with this?

Let me rewind a bit. Forgive me. You will like it, and for now take a deep breath… and don’t stop. It will be rewarding, I promise.

A few years ago while researching on the subject of Power I read many books about Power. However these books rarely left me inspired. Instead they left me questioning whether what these books talked about was truly power. I couldn't sleep well after reading them. I was asking myself again and again what power truly was. The laws of power as they were often referred to in such books were more on the side of deception, making war, manipulation, trickery, and cheating.

I asked myself how anyone could feel powerful with such tactics. If anything, when we have to succumb to such tactics aren't we admitting that we are powerless otherwise? This I was asking myself.

What began to surface was that in the world there was a confusion around Power and what it is. It seemed that Power was ill defined. Worse yet these ill-defined definitions have given Power a bad name. Power has reminded us of such figures as Hitler, Gadhafi, or Genghis Khan. Those were interesting figures but not exactly examples I wanted myself or my children to look up to.

After much soul searching a thought surfaced. The confusion the world seemed to be in was between two ‘on-the-surface’ similar appearing yet distinct expressions. One was Power and the other was Force. I realized that the world was confused between these two. The world seemed to think that Power and Force were the same. People were under the impression that they overlapped. Yet, they are not the same.

When I ask people whether they enjoyed being forced the answer in most cases is a solid ‘No’. When I ask people if they gladly perform a task they are forced to do the answer is almost always a No. When I ask people whether in the morning they are excited to get out of bed to do what they are forced to do the answer is always a No. When I ask people what happens to their energy when they are feeling forced, the answer is always that their energy goes down and that their aliveness goes down. Looking back at my life I had certainly experienced this when I was an employee and working with leaders who were forceful rather than powerful.

Working with forceful managers didn't leave me inspired and rather the opposite, it left me uninspired, even dis-inspired.

In extreme cases my energy didn't just go down I also got sick physically. Energy it surfaced was the way to tell the difference between Power and Force. When we want to be able to tell the difference we need to just ask whether energy went up or whether it went down. You could call this energy ‘aliveness’, if you will. And under extreme Force people will get ill or even die while being exposed to extreme Force such as murder or war. Murder and war are not tools of power but tools of Force and we can tell the difference by looking at the difference in energy.

Now what is Power when Force lowers Energy, I continued to ask myself. Power revealed itself to be the opposite. Power does just the opposite of Force. Power increases energy. Power increases aliveness. Power increases well-being.

And yes, true Power increases Life. True Power expresses itself with ways of being such as Alignment, Purpose, Influence, Vision, Integrity, Presence, Peace, Diplomacy, growing people and leaders, gratitude and also fun. And there are many more … More of what true Power looks like in my book recommended by Marshall Goldsmith. It’s called ‘Develop Exponential Power – Stop Chasing It and Let It Chase You’ and is available through Amazon.com. I recommend you read it, study it, and apply it. It will change your life and it will change the world. Imagine living in a world without Force. Just imagine what that might look like.

True Power is nurturing which brings more life to people and more people to life and is the reason why it is more natural to women than it is to men. 

Hey wait a moment...really? You mean to say that...?

Yes exactly. Women have very natural advantages that we commonly don't necessarily think of as advantages. While boys grow up playing with guns, knives, and other weapons, and nowadays fighting games on their electronic devices girls grow up throwing tea parties and doing role plays with their dolls. Tea parties? Yes, tea parties. What happens at tea parties? Here is what happens. Communication is what happens. Relationship building is what happens. Influencing is what happens. Inspiration is what happens. Alignment is what happens. Reality sharing is what happens. Call it diplomacy if you will. Call it building influence. All the skills a modern leader needs. And it doesn't end there. While boys are busy playing with weapons the girls are already busy developing the skills that are the foundation of the kind of leadership we need in today's world. They have an edge and that’s how the cookie crumbles.

In today’s up-and-down economy we cannot afford forceful and inefficient leadership styles such as command-and-control. Because Force lowers energy we cannot, and will no longer, be able to afford such leadership in a world that always demands more from less. It simply doesn’t add up. Force comes with a cost attached to it. We need leaders that are able to nourish and nurture people to become the best they can be. We need leaders that can unleash unlimited potential from their people. We no longer can afford to have a company full of followers when we can have of company full of leaders. And leaders who are not just good at developing more leaders but are comfortable leading leaders at all levels of the organization.

What is more difficult? Leading followers or leading leaders? Leading leaders of course. Which is better to have? A company full of leaders or a company full of followers? Of course a company full of leaders.

Now am I saying that all women make good leaders No, I am not, nor am I saying that all men don't make good leaders. Unilever just happens to have a great example of modern leadership in its CEO Paul Polman whom I’d love to have coffee with at some point. The truth is we all can make or become good leaders. It's just that the girls have been prepped earlier and longer. It's a natural advantage and it's about time we become conscious of it. Sorry boys. May this be a wake-up call.

Looking at much of the evil in the world; a lot of it is caused by Force. Just look at all the terrorism and more recently the bombings around the world. Would it be interesting in our context to notice that women are more suppressed in societies where terrorism is happening more often or terrorism is utilized to induce political direction? Terrorism is Force. War is Force. Terror and war are an admission that those engaged in them are not powerful enough to find solutions through other means such as through diplomacy, relationship building and peaceful negotiations. Force is an admission that our intellectual and leadership capacities have maxed out and run out, and are bankrupt. The use of Force under normal circumstances should never be necessary.

It means that Force is, and should be, a means of last resort, or not any resort at all, rather than a solution. I am excited to see that some European countries now have women as Ministers of Defense. Force is used when Power and diplomacy are no longer seen as an option to move forward. Yet when we look at history you will notice that war is always just something that gets sandwiched in between diplomatic efforts. There is usually diplomacy before war and then there is diplomacy after the war and to end the war. War is not the solution it's merely posturing much like a Body Builder flexing muscles on a stage.

Let's take a look at our world today. In our world we bully our way around to have it our way without so much of thinking about the consequences. But consequences are there as we burn forests and wildlife so we can make more money. We add unhealthy ingredients to our foods to make more money. We build luxury condo towers with insufficient elevators. We have neuro-toxins in vaccines. We are slowly but surely destroying our planet and ourselves. We call it progress, but it isn’t. We call our planet Mother Earth, yet we are destroying our mother and we are destroying ourselves. Destruction is abound because Force is at play.

What if we introduced more Nurture rather than Force in the way we lead? What if women became more equal in our world to make this possible? What if the way women lead is actually better for all of us? I am not saying women should be more like men, not at all. Women Leaders should lead like women always have but from the front.

What if our world only has a chance if we can learn from our women, when we learn from our Mothers and when we learn to nurture, when we learn that true success is not a win-lose but a win-win? Our planet and our Mother Earth and our future generations might have a chance. They will not have a chance if we continue the way we have. 

If women leaders were running the world and were allowed to have more influence in our world you would see a planet with much greater empathy, a healthier planet with much less or no terrorism, fewer wars if any, and a world that works for everyone. I say let’s give women leaders a chance. Our future needs women leaders more than ever. More radically expressed I would say our future desperately depends on them. And that is why I am so grateful for women like Leena Nair, HR Head at Unilever and Unilever's former Global Head of Leadership Development. Leena is a leader and it takes a leader to develop leaders.

-       Bjorn Christian Martinoff

Copyright 2017 www.bjornmartinoff.com

And that is how the cookie crumbles...

Bjorn Christian Martinoff lives with his wife Victoria and their four children in Makati City, Philippines since 2003. He is a CEO and Executive Coach, author, key note speaker, Executive Development Practitioner and Business Breakthrough Architect. He is a staunch supporter of women in leadership and the author of books on leadership such ‘Develop Exponential Power- Stop Chasing It and Let It Chase You’ which is recommended by Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers50 Award Winner sponsored by the Harvard Business Review

Featured on Bloomberg TV’s Thought Leaders series, Bjorn was referred to as the Thought Leader of thought leaders.

Bjorn Martinoff is a Top Global Leadership Thinker on the cutting edge of what it means to be a leader. He is the developer, and originator, of Leadership 3.0, a new Model of Leadership that is making waves around the Globe.

Bjorn is the Author of ‘Develop Exponential Power’ , an amazing book full of new insights on Leadership.

The book is recommended reading by Bestselling Author and Harvard’s most influential leadership thinker Marshall Goldsmith.

Bjorn is also co-author of the book Organization Development in Practice published by the Organization Development Network – ODN

In February 2016, Bjorn won the Global Coaching Leadership Award in Executive Coaching at the WCC – World Coaching Conference in Mumbai, India

In November 2016, F1C International/fortune100coach.com was awarded ‘Best Management Coaching Provider Philippines by APAC Insights.

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