Read Our Turn for Free Online Page B

evolutionary scheme of things, bringing home the bison demanded instant decisions about fight or flight. For women,who excel at gathering knowledge, encouraging input and weighing options, speed is thought to be less of a strong suit, and there’s a cart of psychological baggage that comes with that concept. Making quick decisions increases the risk of making the wrong decision, and fear of risk and failure is notorious for keeping women in the workplace tethered to the status quo (another point I’ll be exploring later).
    But there’s also another dynamic at work, and it’s one of the more insidious forms of gender stereotyping in the workplace, whether you call it “the double-bind,” implicit bias or, as it was dubbed in a 2014 Catalyst paper, “damned or doomed.” All these terms describe the idea that a female leader compelled to make fast decisions can be caught in a no-win situation. If she doesn’t act fast, she is seen as too soft to lead; if she does, she’s viewed as unlikeable. Or, as Sylvia Ann Hewlett, co-director of the Women’s Leadership Program at Columbia Business School, describes it in her recent book, Executive Presence, women are regarded as ineffective if they “can’t make up their minds” and as cold-hearted bitches when they do. Women, Hewlett argues, should at least “appear to be decisive.” That suggests it’s better to make the wrong decision than no decision at all—in other words, go brave or go home. Speed is the key.
    I don’t disagree. But in my view, this is where the digital age can serve women well. Now more than ever, agility and decisiveness have to be core strengths of leadership, and when women have so many characteristics essential for leading successful teams, we have to trust the way in which women tend to make decisions. We are inclined to be information gatherers, to seek input and do our homework.

    There’s fascinating research, for instance, including a 2012 report from Barclays Wealth and Ledbury Research, that finds women are less likely than men to buy shares in companies they know little about, regardless of whether analysts dub it a “hot stock.” And that cautious research-before-investing approach results in women trading less often than men—and losing less than men. The Barclays study found that women investors are more likely than men to make money in the market; a seminal 2001 report from behavioural economists at the University of California found women’s returns outpaced those of men by an average of 1.4 percent annually. Gathering information and input—a ton of it—in order to make informed decisions fast has never been simpler. Knowledge of all kinds is a click away, whether it’s you or the team that’s mining it.
    Some may consider this research-style approach cautious, or even overly cautious. Others would say it’s smart. And today technology gives us the tools to gather information deeper and faster than ever before. So those informed decisions can come quicker than ever before. A 2013 study from researchers at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business surveyed six hundred board directors and found that how women make decisions makes them better corporate leaders. Companies with women on their boards are well known to outperform those who don’t have female members, and the DeGroote paper found that women’s collaborative, information-intensive approach is more likely to result in sound decisions—even if they are those that rock the boat. So when it comes to swift decisions, women need to be courageous, take a moment to draw upon all that they’ve learned, heard and seen, and then move forward.

    After the months I’d spent in conversation with people at the CBC, for example, what I had to do next was show them we could deliver. Nothing does more to galvanize a team than positive results. Which is why I