The Nine Feminine Traits That Can Be Your Mantra for Excellence at Workspace

The Nine Feminine Traits That Can Be Your Mantra for Excellence at Workspace

Work Place Energies

This is a very auspicious period across India. Wherever you may be in the country, the sky takes on rich blue hue interspersed with the white cumulous clouds, a light breeze follows you like a shadow and Mother Nature is resplendent in the glory of the autumnal sun. Right from the start of Matri Paksh or Navratri till about Diwali, it is a celebration of positive energy across the country. In many ways, you can even call it as a celebration of feminine energy within us and it all starts with the awakening of Nari-shakti or Adi-shakti during Navratri. The festivities may culminate with the lighting of Diyas on Diwali or bursting of crackers but the process that it initiates is a learning experience in itself.

By Feminine energy, I am not only referring to some of the most common positive traits that you often associate with women- but is present in all of us humans in smaller or bigger doses. In terms of the corporate workspace, often this is the type of emotion and feelings that makes work more meaningful and allows us to keep our focus intact. Most times corporate culture and masculinity has been considered to go hand in hand. After all, aren’t men the ones who are seen as management experts, the absolute go-getters? But quite contrary to misconceptions, the feminine management traits are what acts as the true motivating factors for employees and helps in effective team play.

So what exactly are these feminine traits that can help you become a more effective and efficient manager? With such festivities in the air, I just feel it is topical to tie it up with the various forms of Adi-shakti that we worship through this period. The various hues of love, compassion, positivity, life and love are not just a manifestation of worshipping rituals but are actually life altering essentials that may finally find their place of glory in the workspace.

1.     Empathy

‘My employees are ‘humans’ first and not just objects to execute specific tasks’, this is a natural feminine trait which helps build strong and lasting relationships-professionally also. The ability to understand what others are feeling — to detect if they are overworked or frustrated, lacking clarity — is a skill that “clearly contributes to effective leadership,” says the Center for Creative Leadership.
Valuing people as human beings helps bring them together for a common vision and also smoothens meetings, idea sharing and execution.

2.     Being Vulnerable

Admitting you don’t have all the answers and showing humility when you make a mistake: these are qualities often viewed as feminine traits, but they project strength and confidence in a way that’s beneficial for anyone. Author and researcher Brené Brown(Brené’s 2010 TEDx Houston talk, The Power of Vulnerability, is one of the top ten most viewed TED talks in the world) turned the popular notions of vulnerability on their heads. She equates vulnerability with the courage to show up and be seen, and she insists that leaders who are more self-aware and vulnerable inspire others to be honest with them. Gay Gaddis, the owner and founder of T3 (The Think Tank) in Austin, Texas says “When you shut down vulnerability, you shut down opportunity.”

3.     Creating a Participative Environment
Genuine leaders guide their organizations using a shared purpose and vision — not using command and control. They know that miraculous outcomes are possible through collective brainpower –when people come together to solve problems. Thus some leaders also encourage cross-functional project teams.
Advancement in technology has anyways limited meaningful face-to-face interactions.  But by being open to other point of views and being comfortable with allowing proactive people to take lead, leaders are building a participative culture

4.     Mentoring/Nurturing or Empowerment

Often the concept of creating a participative environment goes hand in hand with the idea of mentoring. Across the corporate world, mentoring plays a crucial role. It can be often about mentoring the next CEO of the company or just an average graduate who is a fresher. This process easily enhances the individual’s skill levels and degree of efficiency:
·       It facilitates the skill development and career advancement of subordinates
·       Encourages, assists and provides resources for others
·       Motivates others toward greater enthusiasm for and commitment to work objects by appealing to emotion, value or personal example

5.     Living in the present

Being completely present to wherever you are. Be it home, friends work or any other setting. You are completely present which ensures greater focus, better problem solving, less stress and most importantly you feel the head and heart being connected and hence you are able to actually experience each and every moment. Albert Einstein also said that we understand the past and future but not the ‘now’

6.     Tolerance
Tolerance is the act or state of allowing beliefs and practices that might not be preferred or approved. Most of us tend to feel that we are tolerant, but the truth is, we are tolerant only of those issues that we do not care about.

Tolerance is a fundamental key to effective leadership and high performing teams. Tolerance breeds inclusion and express willingness to respect despite non-agreement. It is an understanding that not everyone thinks and acts like us and this difference and difference in perspective is where the strength of a team lies. To creatively advance in business and life, tolerance is essential

7.     Intuition
It’s all about ‘feeling, right or wrong even though the rational and carefully considered conclusion says otherwise.  
Take Steve Jobs, for example. He was famous for making critical decisions at Apple without first consulting fact-based business data. In 2010, Jobs accurately predicted that the tablet could actually overtake the PC one day, despite many data reports to the contrary. Following his intuition, in April of that same year, he launched the iPad, disregarding the many doubters who doomed it to fail. As we know now, that decision has paid off.
The right part of the brain which was only connected to emotions or creativity is now being appreciated for its contribution in its ‘gut’ based decision making.

8.     Generous Communication

Being generous with communication –offering support, advice, listening and time Communication achieves more connectedness with their teams, invoke a deeper trust, and inspire greater productivity and accountability. Inclusive conversation styles are a hallmark of many women leaders, but men who employ this approach and seek diverse opinions find they have better buy-in and overall better solutions brought forward. Communicating often and reinforcing core values in every interaction with employees will inspire confidence from your team.

9.     Appreciation and Acknowledging
Providing praise, recognition, and financial remuneration when appropriate is another important trait that you need to keep in mind. Good leaders recognize employees; great leaders appreciate them. Appreciation is a much higher form of gratitude than recognition.  

According to vocabulary.com, "If you APPRECIATE something, you RECOGNIZE its value." So, to recognize is to acknowledge existence, appealing to the physical self. To appreciate is to attach value to the existence, appealing to emotional self.

Recognition and Appreciation contributes to building Self-Esteem of an individual, which as per Maslow’s 5 basic human needs is one of them. In Maslow's own words, "All people in our society (with a few pathological exceptions) have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, (usually) high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy of being useful and necessary in the world."

Appreciation often comes naturally to women. Imagine a toddler with the first art work on a piece of paper. To an average eye, it can be a mere scribble or a mess of not so concentric rings. But to the mother, it is a representation of the child’s growing prowess, an ability to hold the pencil firmly and effectively executing an idea on paper. Therefore you see, good or bad will be relative but appreciation invariably tilts the balance in favour of good.

My message

Therefore as you venerate Durga, Uma, Parvati, Skandamata, Lakshmi, Kali and finally celebrate the love and sacrifices of your wives, mothers and sisters this festive season, this is my message to you. 

For The Women
I believe it is also time for women to stop competing with men and start embracing their unique brilliant feminine skills and capabilities to add to the corporate equation. And also at the same time balance it beautifully by bringing in your mature masculinity wherever required.

For The Men
Embrace the feminine traits! Don’t be the ‘stereotype’ tough leader instead enhance your masculinity by identifying and working on your feminine traits.

The Balanced, Powerful and Productive  Feminine and Masculine Energy