Women Leaders were better at facing a global pandemic: Why?

COVID-19 as a global pandemic changed perspectives about various longstanding beliefs and frameworks including but not limited to the success of oil, the role of lending agencies, consumerism, the importance of human to human contact and the First World countries’ ability to combat any challenges. But one surprising lesson that no one was expecting to learn was how women leaders cannot just handle but thrive despite stress, unexpected calamities, disoriented public and limited resources. 

For all the years we have argued about how most industries, corporations and senior management roles are handled by men and women don’t get a place on the decision-making table. This was a discovery that gave rise to an understanding about how women in the workspace can become better at what they do and how they can perhaps be better at disaster management, leading teams, organizing and execution of planned strategy. 

Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland – all came on top in their struggle against COVID-19; their immediate response, their continued communication with their public and their ability to control an otherwise difficult global problem with seemingly no concrete solutions available. They did the best they could, and they did better than most other countries. For example, the table below is an example of their relative success compared to other countries. 

So why and how did this happen? 

Honestly, everyone wanted to know the “why” of this surprising leadership case study. Even people who generally still argued with me that this was a one-off case and that many countries with male representatives did just as well. They did acknowledge that these women leaders did well in their capacity – they said, “they’ve done just as well as their male counterparts” and I was ready to take this as a winning statement even though I myself might add “if not better” to it. Why? Because before this, women were “just not fit for the role”. But after this “they were just as good as their male counterparts”. You see where am I going with this? For me, this is improvement and I will take it any given day because after a decade of being a Senior Professional in the HR industry and then running multiple business ventures – I have more proof to show that women can do better, they will do better only if given the opportunity. I am no longer the “lone” example or “not exactly” the definition of leadership success. I have a global leadership case-study to proof that women in leadership roles are good and can excel if given the chance. 

Decisiveness:

Unlike popular belief that women don’t know what they want – I want to tell you we know exactly what we want. We know when we want to save and buy that very expensive luxury item we have been eyeing for years or months. And please, this does not only include our handbags and shoe collections (these are very important too) but we enjoy our gadgets and our gaming scene is just as competitive as anyone else’s. 

The very unpopular opinion – women mean yes when they say no. No, we mean no when we say no, and we pretty much can make up our mind or change our mind with the changing scenario quite quickly. Our adaptability to change our decision, to make decisions based off the current environment is exemplary. Our survival instinct is strong, and we can think about multiple outcomes instantaneously. This may confuse others, but we are quite clear when we have made up our mind. We know exactly what we want to do, when we want to do it and how it has to be – no compromises. 

These women leaders were quick to make decisions, they were affirmative and strong about their decisions, they did not waiver and they ensured that the on-ground implementation was a 100%. 

Empathy/Uninhibited show of Feelings & Support:

Women are strong because they do not shy away from showing how they feel. To be transparent about how one feels and to be able to word those emotions is not an easy feat. The ability to drop our guard when its needed, the ability to toughen up and face challenges and the ability to understand when others need us – our empathy is one of our strongest traits. 

Our ability to belong, to understand, to communicate with a wide variety of people, irrespective of age, gender, race – makes us superb communicators. I often say it is absolutely unfair that we teach our boys to not cry, that crying is not for men, that they cannot show emotions. It makes them handicapped to feeling and understanding emotions. It makes them incapable of showing concern and extending their support.

Resilience:

When women rise and become successful in a man’s world – you must understand they have been through phases in life where they suffered from self-doubt, they continuously suffer from imposter syndrome, they are the greatest critics of their own selves, they always have the Fear of Missing out and that is why they can sometimes not say NO and take on more than they can handle. This makes them resilient and by the time they reach the top, they’ve jumped over hundreds of loopholes, shattered a million misconceptions and are finally unapologetic for who they are. They become what very few people can become – Familiar with themselves. 

The “never give up” motto is not their choice; it is a requirement that they grow up with and therefore the resilience they show in adversity is surprising! Afterall they survive labor pains, leaving their family unit to start a completely different family unit with a completely different environment in most cultures still to-date, etc. 

Maternal Instincts:

The greatest gift that women have, is the sixth sense – that maternal or survival instinct. They know their life priorities (life first, family first) its human instinct to them. It is perhaps one of the biggest reasons for their success in this case. To realize what was important, to make difficult decisions without missing a heartbeat. They knew if we survive, only then we could thrive as a nation and as an economy. If they had not shut down their economies and countries for the few weeks that they did, they would still have high numbers like other countries. But they closed down for a few weeks to come back on stronger and quicker than most other countries. 

It is perhaps also again the reason why they can reach out to masses and appeal to them. They can change their communication tactics to suit more people and their adaptability and relatability is also a winning combination!

Exposure to working with genders:

A woman’s role in the family, whether she marries, or not, whether she has children or not – is always wider in terms of who they interact with on a daily basis and how much. Their roles in a Family often mean exposure to raising all genders, working with all genders and understanding all genders. Men on the other hand generally do not have such in-depth exposure to handling family, raising children and therefore understanding people’s psychology. This enables women to know more about dealing with people, having better communication skills and as leaders they become great communicators, guides and mentors. 

The above sentiments do not in any way say that men as leaders are unsuccessful – they only make the case that women as leaders can be successful – if given the opportunity. That women in leadership positions is not a risk, it is a possibility that can and will yield positive results. 

Hi, I am Maheen Noor Soomro, a Headhunter, Career Coach and HR Consultant working with companies around the world to help them achieve their business goals. I am a Director at Mushawar UK Ltd, a HR Consulting agency based in the United Kingdom. You can follow me on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram or visit my company’s website: www.mushawar.co.uk.