The Female Advantage

Now in Currency paperback — Sally Helgesen'sclassic study of female leaders and how theirstrategies represent a highly successful revision of maleleadership styles. Sixty thousand copies in print!In her bestselling 1990 book, Sally Helgesendiscovered that men and women approach work infundamentally different ways. Many of these differenceshold distinct advantages for women, who excel atrunning organizations that foster creativity,cooperation, and intuitive decision-making power,necessities for companies of the twenty-first century.Helgesen's findings reveal that organizations run bywomen do not take the form of the traditionalhierarchical pyranaid, but more closely resemble aweb, where leaders reach out, not down, to form aninterrelating matrix built around a central purpose.The strategy of the web concentrates power at thecenter by drawing others closer and by creatingcommunities where information sharing is essential.She presents her findings through unique, closelydetailed accounts of four successful womenbusiness leaders — Frances Hesselbein of Girl ScoutsUSA, Barbara Grogan of Western IndustrialContractors, Nancy Badore of Ford Motor Company's ExecutiveDevelopment Center, and Dorothy Brunson of BrunsonCommunications. Helgesen observes their meetings,listens to their phone calls and conferences, andreads their correspondence. Her "diarystudies" document how women leaders make decisions,schedule their days, gather and disperseinformation, motivate others, delegate tasks, structuretheir companies, hire, and fire. She chronicles howtheir experiences as women — wives, mothers,friends, sisters, daughters — contribute to theirleadership style.

Women's ways of leading — The web of inclusion — The heart of belief is action — The importance of voice : Frances Hesselbein, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. — The structure of spontaneity : Barbara Grogan, Western Industrial Contractors — Breaking down boundaries : Nancy Badore, Ford Motor Company — The leader as transmitter : Dorothy Brunson, Brunson Communications — Vision and voice — Reconciling the efficient and the humane — The end of the warrior age.