September 3, 2012
Something happened to values as we entered the 21st century. In some companies, the focus was shifted from traditional masculine values, sharp competition and hard work – but why? The answer lies in feminine leadership, which with values such as innovation, creativity, intuition and authenticity helps to name 'the feminine century'. The feminine turn has also hit Danish companies.
THEME: Feminine leadership
By Louise Lundgreen
(Photographer: Arne V. Petersen, Copenhagen Airports A/S)
Head of HR Development and Internal Communication at Copenhagen Airports, Anja Westy Larsen, has got feminine leadership under her skin, among other things. through special training in the discipline, and she has experienced such good results that she happily passes on her experiences.
"Not only have I grown myself, I have gained more energy and am happier - I also create better results without toiling any more, and those around me flourish in new and beautiful ways", says Anja Westy Larsen with excitement in her voice.
Feminine holistic leadership focuses on freedom of choice, well-being and appreciative communication, which contributes to satisfied employees, less sick leave and, not least, better results on the bottom line. The circular saws are unscrewed from the elbows and the tie is loosened when the masculine world is led with a soft hand and a kiss on the cheek into the arms of the feminine.
Anja Westy Larsen has a Master of Science in Merchandising. in strategy, organization and management. Before Anja got the management job at Copenhagen Airports, she worked for several years in the consulting industry, which is largely characterized by
of masculine values. The focus was on performance, goals, energy, pace and the ambitions were high. Anja was at ease in this world, and she was very result- and action-oriented, and always moving forward towards new goals. The job at Copenhagen Airports was her first job with managerial responsibility, and she solved most of the tasks with great success. But the personnel management responsibility was a challenge, and the feeling of not being sufficient made Anja look for an alternative path. The feminine leadership that she i.a. met on the Global Goddess Leadership course, made a big difference for her.
"I've been given the tools to reach and achieve more - without struggling any more, and even with renewed energy and inner peace."
"I have been given the tools to reach and achieve more - without struggling any more, and even with renewed energy and inner peace. I have succeeded in creating a meaningful and energizing working life, without compromising on the privacy that I also want. This is because I have learned to bring new aspects of myself into play; my feminine resources such as intuition, trust and inner focus - and use them as a supplement to the virtues that business life today largely rests on. Virtues such as high pace, action and focus on results", says Anja with reference to how important it is that as a manager you can create a balance between work and private life, especially when you are a mother of small children. "So today I walk on two legs instead of one, create even better results and enjoy my job to a much greater extent", she concludes.
HR & Management consultant Mette Rosa Esbensen, who owns and runs the consulting company HR Consult, assists companies with insight into feminine leadership. She sees how the traditional masculine values are combined with the feminine in the new management paradigm, and assesses that the old masculine paradigm cannot cope with today's challenges alone. The coming generation will make new demands, which will change the companies and the management. Therefore, the innovative, authentic and holistic leader has an important role to play in the future. Feminine leadership is not about women, but about feminine values and strengths that reside in both men and women. It must be understood as the dualism of yin and yang, and the time calls for feminine leadership – for both men and women, Mette Rosa Esbensen assesses.
The holistic leader is more holistic, visionary, caring and long-term in his planning. The new leader can be both a man and a woman, as feminine leadership does not reject the masculine values around which leadership is traditionally built. The new management paradigm is strong and useful precisely because it takes the best from both sides – that masculine and feminine values work well together is old learning, but bringing them into such close interaction in business management is new.
Anja Westy Larsen has learned to alternate between masculine and feminine leadership, and concretely she uses the feminine sides in everyday life, especially through a relaxed and positive approach to tasks and employees. Previously, Anja's well-developed control gene had taken over, but it has now been replaced by trust, and she has learned that a leader can be successful and achieve results without necessarily being in control of everything herself, and without working harder herself. Anja gives more space to her team and focuses on creating direction and putting the pieces together into one common puzzle rather than managing and controlling every detail on each of the pieces. Bringing the feminine leadership into play as a complement to the masculine has enabled Anja to create a balance between her work life and private life, and she has never produced such good results.
In practical terms, it is possible, among other things, to do by gearing down and giving yourself small breaks in everyday life when the energy level drops or something is not flowing. A walk, stress-relieving music, power nap, physical activity such as dancing, or simply a trip to the coffee machine are some of the things Anja actively uses during a working day to keep her energy and positive focus up at all times. All things that were not part of the working day before.
It is no secret that Anja's employees have not always been satisfied with her as a leader, but their attitudes have changed after Anja has adopted feminine leadership. The employees experience an everyday life where there is far more trust and freedom of choice for the path to the result. Anja gets, among other things, praise for her "go do" attitude, where she finds peace in not knowing all the details, and in the belief that they will probably reach the finish line successfully anyway. An employee states:
"For me, she evokes what a leader should evoke, namely companionship."
"I think Anja radiates more strength and self-confidence, which makes it incredibly nice to be in her company. For me, she evokes what a leader should evoke, namely companionship. I experience her as a woman who rests more within herself. I also experience her as more open and honest, sometimes loose, which suits her.”
As a company, Copenhagen Airports has also experienced that Anja's feminine leadership has created positive change. They have an employee whose calm, balanced self-assurance has meant that matches are chosen carefully and that energy is used where it really matters.
"At the same time, I can see that her employees also think that it is fantastic to have her as a manager, which gives us the opportunity to achieve even better results in the future. The most important thing is that she seems happier and full of energy, which makes her even more fantastic to spend time with," says Anja's boss, who can only endorse the feminine leadership.
Anja sees it as an important task to pass on the feminine leadership in the business world, and she runs a targeted development program at Copenhagen Airports, the purpose of which is to inspire women to new ways of working and using themselves without unnecessary extra work and an imbalance between work and privacy.
“I am now so busy passing this gift on to other women who, like me, have felt that it is difficult to make it all fit together without a lot of compromises. One of the ways is at my current workplace Copenhagen Airports, where I have developed and run a targeted initiative whose purpose is to inspire women to new ways of working and using themselves - without unnecessary extra work and imbalance, and thus give them the belief in that they can get both/and"
Anja also runs mentoring groups outside Copenhagen Airports, the purpose of which is to inspire and show women how they can create both an energizing and meaningful career, and an equally exuberant private life without oceans of compromise by bringing the feminine leadership into play as a supplement to the masculine .
"Managers in 2012 must first and foremost achieve their goals and create the expected results - that will not be changed, but it is no longer unimportant how they do it. They must be able to balance feminine as well as masculine competencies or strengths, and make use of both in a natural and sincere way. It also means that women must dare to hold on to their feminine strengths and values in a world that is characterized by masculine values – even when they become leaders.” Elaborates Mette Rosa Esbensen.
A successful integration of feminine leadership in day-to-day management requires:
The result of feminine leadership:
Last updated 21 September 2022
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