Maybe the Best Leaders of Tomorrow do “Eat Quiche”
Remember that line from the ’80s, “Real men eat quiche”? The point was that even macho, big, strong men have a feminine side AND that’s good. Well, I came across an article today which takes this concept two or three steps further. It’s a very interesting read.
The article talks about a study and subsequent book titled, ‘The Athena Doctrine’. The belief is that successful leadership traits of the past such as: competitiveness, independence, self-reliance – traits that are considered to be more masculine – are being replaced by traits considered to be more feminine such as: collaboration, adaptability and nurturing.
The theory is that in the future the CEO of companies will be focused less on shareholder value and more on the value being delivered to the community. (In other words, they’ll be quiche eaters).
As with everything, the extremes of the spectrum are not as likely to occur as the middle. My guess is that successful leaders of the future will have a combination of masculine and feminine traits – the best will be competitive, willing to collaborate, able to make a decision quickly but willing to adapt as necessary and will engage all their stakeholders effectively (shareholders, employees, customers, etc).
What do you think?