This essay argues that modern managers should adopt a blended management style that draws on both traditionally masculine and feminine traits rather than rigidly adhering to a single managerial approach. The paper contends that treating all employees identically ignores meaningful individual differences in needs, learning styles, and communication preferences. It traces the origins of blended management to the rise of women in leadership roles and outlines the specific skills — empathy, communication, decisiveness, and competitive drive — that an effective blended manager must cultivate to succeed in an increasingly diverse and global workplace.
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Business management in theory, as opposed to in practice, often craves certainty. Managers demand certainty in the data they analyze and certainty in how standard operating procedures are followed by their colleagues, in order to make an organization fair and effective. Managers often seek the most reliable ways of doing business — namely, the most effective ones. Yet this craving for certainty can cause some managers to single-mindedly adopt a particular theory of managerial governance, rigidly applying one personal style of communication to every associate they encounter. In the name of fairness, they treat everyone the same, without regard for individual needs and differences. This is precisely the mistake a blended management style seeks to avoid.
One might describe this blindness to emotional and personal differences as a traditionally authoritarian schema for approaching subordinates and colleagues. But to deal with human beings is to deal with uncertain quantities — one can never be certain how an employee will react to a manager's directives or overtures. A manager deals not with a number or a job description, but with a whole constellation of personal preferences, past history, and individual needs. To succeed in today's world, one must be responsive to all situations and all types of people, something a standardized or less human approach does not always accommodate.
Today's workplace is continually changing in the faces it presents and the languages it speaks, and the demands of today's global economy are shifting just as rapidly. Managers must change with it. It is not enough to exchange one popular theory for another — one must be willing to change immediately, and as a whole person, while also demanding change from one's employees.
This is why a blended management style is well suited to modern organizations and to the future of business leadership. It is fitting to speak of today's greater workplace diversity in relation to the expansiveness and flexibility of the blended approach. Blended management was born of diversity — specifically, the increase of women in managerial positions. It takes a blend of gender-informed styles in terms of managerial interaction to manage everyone in one's workplace equally, fairly, forcefully, and directly.
Sharpening one's personal talents within a blended style means developing once-neglected abilities, such as the traditionally feminine attributes of strong communication skills, the capacity for empathy toward the multifaceted concerns of one's employees, and a grass-roots rather than top-down approach that solicits opinions from subordinates and the organization's customers when necessary. It also means a willingness to reinvent organizational rules when the rules of the marketplace change, and the ability to combine all of these assets with a keen attention to customer preferences (Griffin, 2001).
"Assertiveness and empathy together drive success"
"Blended style addresses learning styles and individual needs"
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