The Masculine-Feminine of Organizational Culture

David Maister's observation gleanded from the Australian Institute of Management Convention at Passion People and Principles started up a lively discussion about whether women inherently make better leaders and so on than men. With Tom Peters jumping on the band wagon asserting which view is right and which one is wrong (you guessed it...he is right) doesn't add any depth to the discussion. David expresses confusion and rightly so. What it is too easy to do is to keep polarizing the issues rather than looking deeper to see what can be learned.

Masculine and feminine is more a matter of essence in balance than gender. Each gender has both qualities: receptivity (feminine) and action (masculine).

Energetically energy flows in the body on the left and out on the right.  Receptivity in organizational terms is listening, reflection, taking no action as a form of action, the latter being important as the role of managers and executives changes from one of control to support. Action oriented companies are really really busy and many have forgotten why. Purpose gets lost in the to-do list and the check marks suggest something has gotten done but leave out what exactly it has contributed.

The whole dynamic of masculine-feminine or action-reflection/receptivity shows up in customer service, team work, key relationships; in fact everywhere there is human interaction.

To illustrate how this work in you personally, try standing on your right leg eyes closed and see how stable you are, then switch legs to the left leg. The results should give you some indication of how balanced you are.

When you watch organizaitonal dynamics through the lens of a detached witness what do you see?