TOM@RICHHABITS.NET
In John Gray’s popular book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, he highlighted many of the psychological differences between men and women. Gray noted that men and women just think differently and they have distinct emotional needs and communication preferences.
The book’s popularity led to numerous studies in an effort to better understand the difference between the sexes.
Two such studies found that women are hardwired to be more thoughtful about how they invest their money and, as a result, take less risk than men when it comes to money.
The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances found that women held a greater share of their Investable Assets in lower-risk assets and were more likely to change their asset allocation during volatile markets.
A 2012 Study by the University of Buffalo, published in the Journal of Gambling Studies, found that men played the lottery more frequently than women. Men, on average, play the lottery 18.7 days a year, while women, on average, play just 11.3 days a year.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, Effort-Less Wealth, Change Your Habits Change Your Life, Rich Habits Poor Habits and “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.”
Given the traditional glass ceiling women have faced trying to get to the C suite, for decades they have been forced to witness the overwhelming male Corporate hierarchy manage by the numbers, often with ruthless enforcement and dubious results. The so-called ‘soft’ management skills were never really effectively employed to balance out corporate leadership. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a growing shift from a focus on corporate shareholders to a more balanced governance view embracing corporate all stakeholders. I believe women have an innate ability to demonstrate a higher level of EQ (emotional Intelligence) in leadership and corporate governance than men. With a need to now take into account a much greater range of short and long-term operating variables into account, I see a greater number of corporate boards leaning toward women leaders to guide their companies through the changing dynamics of increased stakeholder activism and a more focused and vocal scrutiny of a company’s overall impact on their communities and the environment. Only time will tell if women leaders are more effective than men in making good management and leadership decisions in this changing business environment.