In psychology, there are five dimensions of personality called the Big Five One of those dimensions is something called agreeableness, where a person is kind, polite, cooperative and friendly If you’re high in agreeableness, you display more prosocial behaviour than usual and you’re affectionate, trusting, empathetic, warm and quick to help Basically, you’re a great person This also means you’d work well in a team and you’d be the kind of person who wants to resolve, rather than have a prolonged confrontation.
According to a psychology study, women score much higher than men, when it comes to agreeableness So, the balance has to be made between the hunter mentality and the nurturer mentality Because if you have too much of the nurturer mentality, you could be seen as passive, too compromising and may lose the respect of other employees So, what are tiny things you can do to combat too much agreeableness as a woman leader or an aspiring woman leader? Becoming a leader and staying a good leader is about making tough decisions These decisions are not going to please everyone Someone messed up?
Someone did something wrong? Take a tiny error, if you want to, and instead of wanting to avoid upsetting someone, maybe, tell them what the mistake was and how it can be fixed That could transform a negative into a positive and unlock your strength as a leader If you’re being agreeable, you may stay away from conflict and disagreement Because to you, you would want to be liked and not let anything get in the way of people you work with But, honest conflict is better than dishonest harmony Being a negotiator as a leader is also quite important If you’re negotiating with another party, you have to balance your interests with the interests of the other side If the other side senses you give in easily and want to please people, you lose the battle A negotiation or a compromise is about leaving the table equally dissatisfied As an agreeable person, you may feel you shouldn’t ruffle any feathers, but in a negotiation, you’ll lose more than the other side.
