Research conducted by Zenger Folkman, which is a company that trains companies in leadership, found that women are generally more effective leaders than men simply because they build better teams and are more liked and respected than men.
Another study by the Dow Jones Venture Source found that businesses with women senior executives are more likely to succeed than companies with only men in charge. With all this data, it is safe to conclude that women make great entrepreneurs and leaders.
In fact, they make such good entrepreneurs that they can teach men a thing or two about how to be better leaders.
Read below to learn why women are great entrepreneurs and what men can learn from them:
1. They are strong-minded yet soft-hearted.
Women, even those with take-charge personalities, are usually more softhearted than men. For example, if an employee needs to be off work due to a family emergency, a woman is more likely to empathize with them and allow them the time off of work. In addition, they can often relate to women who have to juggle a career and be a mom or caregiver at the same time.
Business strategist and host of the No Glass Ceiling Women's Conference, Kelly Fidel said, "Women are tough yet soft hearted. Focused and driven, full of love and compassion that creates exponential positive change in business and life. This strong-minded yet soft-hearted combination makes for a great leader."
2. They are intuitive.
According to a study in the British Journal of Psychology, intuition is defined as what happens when the brain draws on past experiences and external cues to make decisions. In business, as in life, intuition plays a huge role in success and failure, and women possess a keen sense of intuition. After all, "women's intuition" is a famous phrase for good reason.
Although experts believe that men also possess an intuition, for whatever reason, they are not as aware of it and do not heed it as often as women.
3. They know how to live a life of balance.
Women are born multi-taskers, and they thrive on accomplishing several goals at once. Many women entrepreneurs balance their careers while taking care of their families, and some even have to balance taking care of aging parents while still parenting children themselves on top of a career.
One such study was performed by associate professor Ragini Verma at the University of Pennsylvania. The research showed major differences in the neural wiring of men and women.
In essence, a woman's brain is simply wired to handle multi-tasking better than a man's.
4. They are persistent.
Persistence, determination, ambition and tenacity used to be words describing only men. However, the trend is changing in today's society. It seems today's women are more persistent, or goal-oriented, than their male counterparts.
A report by the Pew Research Center reports that two-thirds of young women now place having a successful career as one of the most important goals in their lives. The study found that women still wanted to have a family, so it wasn't that they wanted a career instead of a family, but that they were ambitious enough to try to accomplish both.
Why women are becoming more tenacious than men is difficult to say, but their increased persistence is a trend that is backed up by research.
5. They have a higher purpose or cause.
Women are often much deeper thinkers than men and tend to care more about spiritual matters. Women go to places of worship more often and are more involved in giving back to others than men. There are varying theories on why this is so, one is that women are naturally more spiritual than men because their role in life is constantly changing, causing them to reevaluate their lives on a regular basis.
In other words, women are always self-monitoring and pondering life. Because women tend to care more about a higher purpose in life and they give more to various causes, it only makes sense that this attribute would stay with a women when she becomes an entrepreneur, making her a great leader.
Women make excellent entrepreneurs as well as great moms, wives, sisters, daughters and friends. The five points listed above are just a few reasons that they make better bosses than men. If men are wise, they will implement a few of them in their own lives to become a better entrepreneur.
Fidel stated, "Women are competitive by nature and still love to win. The difference is by unexpectedly enrolling those around us in the vision of the greater good, whether it's a football game or a boardroom, we also want those around us to win along side us, hence the teamwork."