Professor and author Judy B. Rosener has called women’s approach to leadership interactive leadership. The leader favors a consensual and collaborative process,and influence derives from relationships rather than position power and authority. Some psychologists have suggested that women may be more relationship oriented than men because of different psychological needs stemming from early experiences. This difference between the relationship orientations of men and women has sometimes been used to suggest that women cannot lead effectively because they fail to exercise power. However,whereas male leaders may associate effective leadership with a top-down command-anh-control process,women’s interactive leadership seems appropriate for the future of diversity,globalization,and learning organizations. Cindy Szadokierski applies interactive leadership to handle the complex and demanding job of managing operations for United Airlines in Chicago.IN THE LEADCindy Szadokierski, United Airlines Twenty-five years ago, Cindy Szadokierski quit her job teaching high school French and went to work as a reservations agent for United Airlines. Today,she is vice president in charge of operations for United’s largest hub at O’Hare International Airport. After joining the company,Szadokierski served in positions of increasing responsibility,including being general manager of United’s hub at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. From the beginning of her career with United, Szadokierski wanted to be in operations because she liked the idea of bridging the gap between what goes on in the field and what happens at headquarters. At O’Hare,where she oversees 4,000 employees and 600 flights a day, her favorite times are the weekly afternoon walk abouts on the O’Hare ramp and the weekly morning strolls through the terminal. Why? Because they give her a chance to connect with employees and customers. Pete MCDonald,chief operating officer of United’s parent,UAL Corpora,says there were serious operations problems at O’Har,so they put “the most communicative person” in the job.”She’s every where. She talks to everybody,” said Don Wolfel,president of United’s mechanics union at O’Hare. Szadokierski’s approach to leadership is more collaborative than command-and-control. In addition to learning from employees and customers, Szadokierski emphasizes regular meetings with her leadership team to talk about what’s going right,what’s going wrong,and how to collaboratively fix any problems.Although the values associated with interactive leadership,such as inclusion,relationship building,and caring,are generally considered “feminine” values,inter-active leadership is not gender-specific. There values are becoming increasingly valuable for both male and female leaders. Any leader can learn to adopt a more inclusive style by paying attention to nonverbal behavior and learn to adopt a more inclusive style by paying attention to nonverbal behavior and developing skills such as listening,empathy,cooperation,and collaboration.
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