Growing Women Leaders

Nurturing women's leadership in the Church

It's quite exciting, if a little disconcerting, to surf the net looking for info about oneself! Nevertheless that's what I've been doing in relation to the imminent publication of my book. It's already in the online catalogues of Amazon and Eden, as well as BRF and CPAS.

Growing Women Leaders is published by CPAS/BRF on 19 September - 4 weeks today. You can read an extract on the BRF website, using this link. Click here to order a copy from CPAS.

One chapter of the book is about leadership style: do women lead differently? The conclusion is - yes and no! Yes, to the extent that some leadership research suggests that women bring some particular skills to leadership. I've just picked up news of a recent 'forum' for professional women, which says that 'Our research shows that leadership style is different for women as they tend to use innovation, trust and empowerment of others...'

A 4-page, very readable piece of research on women's leadership along these lines which is worth downloading is The DNA of Women Leaders, a research study by Aurora and Caliper. While the study was of business women, the conclusions make interesting reading for those also interested in leadership in the Church. It suggests some distinctive leadership qualities of women - being more persuasive, risk-taking, inclusive and team-oriented than men.

But this does not necessarily mean that women do lead differently from men, and other studies have shown that differences between women are more significant than between women and men. Hence my 'yes and no' answer!

Why not ask this question about yourself and the women leaders you know: do you and they have a leadership style which is distinctive to women, or is it all about personality?