Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1114702
09.05.19 13 OPINION Malta's first female Prime Minister I think a female Prime Minister will inspire a generation of women to pursue with more conviction and self-belief top leadership positions everywhere and that surely can only be good Kevin-James Fenech Kevin is the founder and owner of JOB Search - jobsearch.mt and FENCI Consulting fenci.eu. He is a management consultant and business advisor by profession, focusing on strategy, human resources and recruitment. He has a passion for anything related to business and has written about the topic for over 10 years in most major newspapers or journals Angela Merkel has been Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and served as the leader of the centre- right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018 T he time has come for our country to have its first female Prime Min- ister. I think we have as a coun- try finally managed to break out of our conservative mould and become socially progressive enough to have the privilege of welcoming our first female Prime Min- ister. From my experience, in recruitment and talent management, women leaders offer a completely different skill set to men. I find women leaders are empa- thetic; they have a strong understanding of what motivates people and they make great listeners. I also find women to be more capable of multitasking than men; and leader- ship by definition requires you to wear different hats and multitask on a daily basis. Finally, I find women exhibit their ego differently to men; my point is that they can take a decision with their ego out of the equation if need be, whereas men in general frequently struggle to do this. Don't get me wrong; I am not saying women make better leaders; they don't. I am just stating that women bring a dif- ferent compliment of skills to the pow- er-table and depending on the context or the organisation, such skills are more suited sometimes. For example, if I have a financially suc- cessful organisation but morale is flat, the female CEO could be a better option but if I have a start-up or high-growth business pursuing a game-changing strategy, I'd expect the male CEO to fare better. Clearly, I am generalising; my point is that one gender isn't better than the other, it's more a question of different situations, contexts and/or organisa- tions require different types of leaders sometimes one sex is more suitable than the other. Malta in 2019, is ripe for the first female Prime Minister. We've been through so much socially progressive change recently and women in the workplace occupying positions of pow- er and influence is today much more of a common occurrence, that I think it is only a matter of time before we have our first female PM. e benefits will be plenty. I think a fe- male Prime Minister will inspire a gen- eration of women to pursue with more conviction and self-belief top leadership positions everywhere and that surely can only be good. John Kotter defines leadership as '… creating a vision of the future and strat- egies for producing the changes needed to achieve that vision; aligning people around the vision; and motivating them to overcome barriers and produce the changes needed to achieve the vision…'. I see female leaders as better equipped on most fronts to do precisely this i.e. aligning people around a vision; mo- tivating people; implementing the change. Interestingly, men in general tend to be better at crafting strategy therefore the first part of Kotter's definition is where female leaders still lack the cut- ting edge over men. But you put a female Prime Minister in a position where she inherits a well-ar- ticulated vision and strategy, and I think she would be an excellent successor and executor of same vision and Strategy. In fact, Zenger Folkman's (2011) 30- year research on the subject, with over 7,000 leaders, revealed that out of six- teen leadership competences, women outscored men in 15 out of 16 except when it came to 'developing strategic perspective'. To be fair men only marginally won (51% vs. 49%) and in the remaining 15 competences there were some scores were women not just won but they did so by a large margin ranging from +9% to +11% (namely: 'Taking Initiative', 'Self-Development', 'High Integrity & Honesty' and 'Results Driven'). My point is that there is also the re- search to support my assertion that fe- male leaders are excellent material for great leaders. I hope I haven't offended my fellow male counterparts; there have been many excellent male leaders in business, sports, politics and society in general over the decades. But I do think it is high time that more women rise to the summit and lead not just companies but even our beloved country. I think we have a lot to gain as a people. Sure, it must be based on merit and not any form of positive discrimination but the time is ripe for this to happen should the right female step forward. Admittedly men will continue to dom- inate leadership positions (for a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic reasons) but the time is ripe for us to have our first female Prime Minister and I think we should as a people encourage this his- toric moment. Granted there must be the right fe- male leader ready and willing to make the commitment and she must deserve the role but I am sure there is someone out there who is more than capable of leading our country in the near future. In the words of Michelle Obama: 'No country can ever truly flourish if it sti- fles the potential of its women and de- prives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.'