Although the gap between men and women in leadership positions is narrowing, there still exists a glaring disparity between them. Lean In Study 2019 about gender representation in the corporate pipeline reveals that women only hold 21 percent of C-suite positions.

But why does this gender inequality persist in leadership roles when women are as qualified as men are to lead? In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, women score higher than men in most leadership skills. Unconscious bias, however, is what hinders them from getting promoted in their organizations.

While men tend to maximize their financial return from work, women view work more holistically, as a part of their overall life plan, approaching their careers in a self-reflective way and valuing factors such as meaning, work-life balance and connection with co-workers.  Soft skills – which have historically been used as excuses for why women are unfit to lead – are now proven to be an indispensable ingredient for effective leadership.

In honour of International Women’s Day, here are three ways I believe why women make great leaders.

1.    Women build strategic connections and networks

A research from Gallup reveals that 41 percent of female managers are engaged at work, more than male managers (only 35 percent). Female managers are also far more effective at developing people than their male counterparts. Lady bosses know how to give their employees a vision of a bright future and strategically link the organization’s various seams, helping the organizational functions run more cohesively. They also tend to provide regular feedback to help their employees achieve goals.

While women leaders may feel a stereotype-influenced pressure to be overly humble with the team, they do their best to resist, running streamlined meetings, averting low-priority decisions, pruning nonessential appointments from their calendars and setting time aside for high-level thinking. Simultaneously, they smartly utilize their collaborative strengths and inclinations by working with others in a way that fosters or cements key relationships and ups their visibility.

2.    Women lead with emotional intelligence

Leaders set the tone of their organization so they must be highly emotional intelligent. Otherwise, they could face more far-reaching consequences, resulting in lower employee engagement and a higher turnover rate. As a matter of fact, emotional intelligence makes up nearly 90 percent of what sets apart high performers from their fellows with similar technical and skills.

Including a range of softer skills, like self-awareness, motivation, empathy and adaptability, emotional intelligence is a capability that makes managers effective. A Forbes study indicates that women outperform men on nearly every aspect on the emotional intelligence scale. While a shrewd business acumen and assertiveness are critical in leadership, the ability to bring people and ideas together cannot be disregarded either. And women tend to be better at understanding what others are feeling – whether they are overworked or struggling.

EI helps women leaders find and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of their employees and co-workers, thus creating a stronger business. It also helps them self-regulate themselves, which is why they rarely attack others or compromise their values.

3.    Women are holistic problem-solvers

Great leaders, at their heart, are great problem-solvers. They know how to gather the right resources, budget and knowledge from past experiences.

And according to the American behaviour researcher Helen Fischer, “when women cogitate, they gather details somewhat differently than men. Women integrate more details faster and arrange these bits of data into more complex patterns. As they make decisions, women tend to weigh more variables, consider more options, and see a wider array of possible solutions to a problem. Women tend to generalize, to synthesize, to take a broader, more holistic, more contextual perspective of any issue.”

Women leaders improve the problem-solving process by making it highly collaborative. They are particularly skilled at soliciting and listening to multiple, diverse voices, so they don’t take decisions until all ideas have been heard, reflected and tested. This approach to problem-solving allows them to take right and effective decisions.

Learn how you can take your leadership teams through a growth model which will help them mature on personal and professional levels. Raise your leadership game with our 360 Feedback Solution.  

Paul Keijzer is the CEO and Founder of Engage Consulting and the co-Founder of The Talent Games, which aims to transform HR by digitising talent processes and creating more engaging and productive workplaces through gamification and mobile technology. As a global HR and Leadership Management expert, Paul knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.