TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
How balancing feminine, masculine energy can create better leaders
Change Size
Who do I think is the most creative leader, a man or a woman? (Shutterstock/-)
I
was in Moscow, Russia, speaking in a women and technology panel at the Asia Forum when someone in the audience asked me: Who do I think is the most creative leader, a man or a woman?
It hit me: We've been connecting leadership traits with gender, when they are supposed to be tied to feminine and masculine energy. Whoever holds more feminine energy in them, can be more creative than the others. Having said that, a man can be more creative than a woman if he has more feminine energy.
Before we go further, I need to explain a little bit more about feminine and masculine energy. Eastern philosophies explain that, in nature, all matters consist of feminine (yin) and masculine (yang) energy that changed in balance with each other.
The traits of feminine energy are usually summed up as intelligent and loving energy that contains the quality of intuition, compassion, emotion, creativity, empathy, collaboration, spirituality, holistic thought and right-brain thinking.
On the other hand, masculine energy is an intelligent energy that possesses the quality of analytic and rational thinking, competition, determination, linear thinking, logical thought, action and left-brain thinking.
In society, since early age, women are assumed to have feminine energy and men are assumed to have masculine energy, but in leadership rolse it can jeopardize a company when the leader can only embrace one energy at a time. Leaders need to balance both energies inside them.
Nowadays, women have the need to constantly “work like a man” and prove themselves while, in a similar context, men are more likely to deny their intuition for fear that they would connect with their emotional self and be labeled as weak.
The question is not whether to have a woman or a man as a leader of the company, but whether the leader can run the company with balanced leadership. We are not going to discuss competition between men and women, but instead about integration: how to cultivate feminine and masculine energy and to be mindful and aware in the process.
One of the first steps to balance your feminine and masculine energy is to become more aware of your thoughts. Catch yourself when you think more with your left brain and become cold, or when you are using your right brain and become too emotional. Identify those thoughts.
The next step is to find out what feminine and masculine traits you lack and then take actions to strengthen them in a way that creates a balance between these two energies.
After assessing myself, I understand that even though I am a woman, I have more masculine traits in me. So, to be able to be balanced, I need to cultivate my feminine energy by nurturing my sensitive and emotional sides through these practices:
- Slowing down when at work; focusing on one thing at a time.
- Listening to my colleagues with empathy and compassion.
- Taking care of my team, understanding their needs, paying attention to details.
- Showing kindness.
- Expressing creativity through writing, art and more.
- Meditating to connect with my inner self.
If you are the type of “real” women who is showered with feminine energy and needs to tap into masculine energy, you have to be active, dominant and logical, so you can make decisions faster and more firmly.
Here is what you can do:
- Train yourself to make daily decisions.
- Grow your self-confidence; all your insecurities are only in your head.
- Learn to take charge, offer yourself to take bigger responsibilities.
- Learn to say no, even to yourself.
- Try to lift boxes or other “manly” activities without asking for help.
Balanced leaders build trust across the entire organization. They are emotionally intelligent and aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They understand their core values and communicate it well to their team. They make effective decisions and prioritize well. They listen and understand that their team needs to grow. They inspire and support their team members to be the best they can be.
And, last but not least, they build empathy and approach their teams from a loving perspective. In short, they earn the trust of their teams by looking at things in a holistic way.
***
Aulia Halimatussadiah (Ollie) is a writer of 28 books and an entrepreneur. She’s the co-founder and chief content officer of Zetta Media Network.Since 2010, she helped shaped the writing and publishing industry in Indonesia through her self-publishing startups NulisBuku.com and Storial.co. She's been actively organizing non-profits such as #StartupLokal. You can contact her at salsabeela.com | Twitter/IG: @salsabeela | Fb: salsabeela | Snapchat: OllieSalsabeela.
