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Do emotional connections make women better business leaders than men?

August 6, 2021Written by Tom Ryan

Photo: Getty Images/South_agency

A university study shows that when women express calm, happy emotions, they are perceived as more effective leaders than men. The effect is most pronounced for leaders in top positions in an organization. The findings work against stereotypes that erroneously claim that women are "too emotional" for effective leadership. The researchers at the University of California - Riverside and Drexel University claim to be the first to examine prototypes, or schemas, for the types of emotions displayed by leaders. Respondents were asked to describe what types of emotions leaders feel and express. Six emotional schemas associated with leadership were revealed:

Three — cheer, calm, pride — were associated with effective leadership.
Three — anger, fear, remorse — were associated with ineffective leadership.

The broader conclusion was that implicit theories of leadership emotions had the most impact on perceptions of leadership effectiveness at the highest levels of management. For lower-ranking leaders, such as an individual’s immediate boss or supervisor, firsthand information plays a large role in evaluating leadership effectiveness. UC Riverside psychology professor Thomas Sy said in a statement, “We usually have little contact with leaders at the highest levels and less information about them. Therefore we tend to rely on schemas. Schemas are powerful. Even in the absence of data they shape our behavior." A surprising finding was that, although men have more leeway for expressing negative emotions, women are seen as more effective than men when they don't express negative emotions. Many articles in recent years promoted the increased importance of emotional intelligence, or understanding and managing emotions, to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. An article published in the Harvard Business Review, “7 Leadership Lessons Men Can Learn from Women,” enumerates a list of traits that the authors, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Cindy Gallop, believe belong to a definitively “feminine” style of leadership including connecting emotionally with employees. The authors wrote, “While AI will hijack the technical and hard-skill elements of leadership, so long as we have humans at work, they will crave the validation, appreciation, and empathy that only humans — not machines — can provide. Men can learn a lot about how to do this effectively by watching and emulating women.”

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