Understanding Leadership through Gender-Lens: Insights from Global Women Leaders

Patty Patria, Chief Information Officer, Babson College    

The Key to Effective Leadership

Emotional Intelligence, and all of the soft skills that accompany it, are critical to today’s leaders. To effect change in any organization, you need to be a good listener, understand the needs and concerns of both your teams and your customers, understand the criticality of change management, understand where your stakeholders might be on the change curve, and empathize with them along the journey. A good leader can use all of these skills to find solutions for her constituents, and then work to effectively communicate those changes and the best way to implement them. 

A Lesson in Resilience & Teamwork

Many female leaders lead with confidence, but without ego. This is a very important characteristic. Often, when you have large projects that don’t go as expected, egos can get in the way. My team recently worked on a very large, complex CRM transformation, and when we went live, it did not go as smoothly as expected. Instead of pointing fingers and blaming individuals which often happens in projects like this, myself and my female DCIO stepped in, spent hundreds of hours working with our key stakeholders to address the gaps and concerns, develop a plan to fix gaps, and eventually we were able help our constituents achieve stability. Although it was exhausting and frustrating at times, we did it with professionalism, respect, hard work and a little humor to make it through. 

Advice for aspiring women leaders

Embrace your authenticity. All leaders have different styles; lead as yourself, not as who you think others expect you to be. It is important to stretch yourself in your career goals, and in your position. Take calculated risks and work hard to ensure you are successful.  Learn from your lessons, pivot, and then move forward.