We don\u2019t yet know with certainty whether testosterone strongly influences business decision-making. But the perception of the ideal business leader is starting to shift. The old model of command and control, with one leader holding all the decision-making power, is considered hidebound. The new model is sometimes called \u201cpost-heroic,\u201d\u009d or \u201ctransformational\u201d\u009d in the words of the historian and leadership expert James MacGregor Burns. The aim is to behave like a good coach, and channel your charisma to motivate others to be hardworking and creative. The model is not explicitly defined as feminist, but it echoes literature about male-female differences. A program at Columbia Business School, for example, teaches sensitive leadership and social intelligence, including better reading of facial expressions and body language. \u201cWe never explicitly say, \u201d\u02dcDevelop your feminine side,\u2019 but it\u2019s clear that\u2019s what we\u2019re advocating,\u201d\u009d says Jamie Ladge.<\/p>\n
A 2008 study attempted to quantify the effect of this more-feminine management style. Researchers at Columbia Business School and the University of Maryland analyzed data on the top 1,500 U.S. companies from 1992 to 2006 to determine the relationship between firm performance and female participation in senior management. Firms that had women in top positions performed better, and this was especially true if the firm pursued what the researchers called an \u201cinnovation intensive strategy,\u201d\u009d in which, they argued, \u201ccreativity and collaboration may be especially important\u201d\u009d\u201d\u201dan apt description of the future economy.<\/p>\n
It could be that women boost corporate performance, or it could be that better-performing firms have the luxury of recruiting and keeping high-potential women. But the association is clear: innovative, successful firms are the ones that promote women. The same Columbia-Maryland study ranked America\u2019s industries by the proportion of firms that employed female executives, and the bottom of the list reads like the ghosts of the economy past: shipbuilding, real estate, coal, steelworks, machinery.<\/p>\n