First, I want to say hello to our regular readers, after an absence of 4 1/2 months. If you would like to know the cause of this silence you can find the details here.  Please use this password: 7243541.

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In my work with leadership teams I have found a surprising tendency to focus on behaviors and approaches that draw almost exclusively from masculine energy, while overlooking and often dismissing feminine energy.

The  language of business is frequently violent. We talk of killer apps, destroying the competition, dominating the marketplace and so on. We have “chocolate cake to die for” and we know our friends like us when they say, “you kill me”.

Our solutions for disputes rely on punishment or reward – in other words, motivation. We are addicted to goals and objectives, accountability, results, key performance indicators, mission, vision and values statements and metrics.

Our politics, locally and internationally, are ugly and confrontational and highly personal. Winning is the only game.  We are even prepared to die and kill to prove that our religions and beliefs are superior to those of others.

This over-abundance of masculine energy, without the balancing benefits of the feminine energy, is draining, exhausting and uninspiring. As a result, businesses perform below their potential and the statistics for employee engagement have never been worse. We are suffering because we have lost our feminine energy.

Just as challenging is the reaction of many leaders when presented with ideas that could break this pattern. Eye-rolling and reference to “soft stuff” are the natural roadblocks thrown up by leaders blind to fresh thinking because of their excess of masculine energy – and so the uninspiring spiral continues.

When feminine energy is embraced by traditional leaders who have been weaned on an old masculine-only playbook, the effect is transformational. Workplaces take on a new tone where listening, compassion, empathy, openness – even love, become an inspiring addition to corporate culture.

When the masculine and feminine energies are balanced, high performance results. I have seen transformations that most would never have believed possible through this simple (but not easy) change in thinking.

Try it – you might achieve corporate magic too.