The Business Cost of Inflexible Leadership for Women Executives

Women executives who lack a flexible leadership mindset often find themselves locked into rigid approaches with statements like “that’s just how I lead” or “they’ll have to get used to it.” This inflexibility creates significant limitations:

• Forces one approach onto diverse situations requiring different solutions
• Creates an identity barrier that’s difficult to overcome
• Reduces opportunities for innovation and team development
• Dramatically lowers the odds of success in complex environments
• Reinforces potential gender stereotypes rather than transcending them

Research indicates that companies with women in leadership positions are 30% more likely to outperform others—suggesting that when women executives leverage flexible approaches, organizations benefit.

The Flexible Leadership Framework for Women Executives

To help women executives develop a flexible leadership mindset, Eikenberry introduces the Cynefin Framework (pronounced kuh-NEV-in) as a tool for making sense of different leadership situations:

1. Clear Contexts for Women Executives

Situations where cause and effect are obvious, best practices exist, and processes are established. Traditional leadership approaches often work well here.

2. Complicated Contexts for Women Executives

Scenarios requiring expertise but where systems remain fairly ordered. Women executives benefit from gathering diverse perspectives before making decisions.

3. Complex Contexts for Women Executives

The most common leadership environment today—where interconnected factors create unpredictability. Women executives thrive here by testing approaches, learning quickly, and adapting.

4. Chaotic Contexts for Women Executives

Rare crisis situations requiring immediate action. Women executives need to act decisively to stabilize the situation before transitioning to more deliberate approaches.

Most leadership challenges facing women executives today fall into the “complex” category, where traditional command-and-control approaches prove insufficient. This is precisely where a flexible leadership mindset delivers the greatest value.

Developing a Flexible Leadership Mindset as a Woman Executive

Building a flexible leadership mindset begins with five crucial elements:

1. Awareness

Women executives must recognize that their default approach won’t always serve them best. This awareness opens the door to considering alternatives.

2. Intentional Flexibility

Deliberately choosing to consider different perspectives and approaches rather than automatically defaulting to familiar patterns.

3. “AND” Thinking

Moving beyond either/or binary thinking to embrace multiple truths simultaneously—a skill many women executives naturally possess.

4. Emotional Intelligence

Noticing your emotional responses as signals for potential adaptation—another area where women executives often excel.

5. Adaptive Confidence

Building trust in your ability to adjust rather than relying solely on certainty—essential for women executives navigating gender bias.

The Confidence-Competence Loop for Women Executives

Developing a flexible leadership mindset works through what Eikenberry calls the confidence- competence loop:

1. Begin with a base level of confidence in your ability to navigate uncertainty
2. Try new leadership approaches deliberately in various contexts
3. Learn from each experience to build competence in flexible leadership
4. Let growing competence fuel greater confidence as a woman executive
5. Repeat this cycle with increasingly challenging leadership situations

This approach is particularly valuable for women executives who may face added scrutiny. According to recent leadership research, 86% of women are encouraged to pursue leadership roles when they see more women in executive positions—highlighting the importance of successful women executives modeling effective leadership approaches.

Essential Mindset Shifts for Women Executives

The most powerful mindset shift for women executives embracing flexible leadership involves identity:

“There’s a difference between who we are and what we do.”

Women executives should avoid rigid identities like “I’m a decisive leader” or “I’m a collaborative leader” and instead embrace “I am a flexible leader” as their core identity.

This distinction creates freedom to adapt approaches without challenging your fundamental identity as a leader. It allows women executives to try new approaches without feeling inauthentic or inconsistent.

Key Takeaways on Flexible Leadership Mindset for Women Executives

• Flexible leadership mindset is particularly valuable for women navigating
  leadership expectations
• Start by separating your leadership identity from your leadership behaviors
• Practice intentionally pausing before defaulting to automatic responses
• Consider context thoroughly before applying solutions
• Improve your odds of success by matching your approach to the specific situation
• Affirm to yourself daily: “I am a flexible leader with a growth mindset”

According to global leadership research, professional working women identify key skills needed for leadership development as leadership training (57%), confidence building (56%), and decision-making (48%)—all areas that benefit from cultivating a flexible leadership mindset.

Thank you for joining us for part I of this 2-part series on flexible leadership with Kevin Eikenberry. Connect with Kevin at kevineikenberry.com to access his newsletter and additional resources for implementing flexible leadership strategies.