Research Publications

Which gender supplies better leaders for organizations? Based on research conducted by Zenger Folkman, the
authority in strengths-based leadership development, the answer is rather clear and quite shocking. As far as the 16
researched differentiating leadership competencies are concerned women excelled in a majority of areas.
Below is the research of a sample of 7,280 leaders who had their leadership effectiveness evaluated in 2011. 64% of
our data set was male (4651) and 36% was female (2629). The data represents managers and executives who completed our Extraordinary Leader 360 assessment in 2011. Our clients tend to be progressive, successful companies that have a strong belief in leadership development. This is not a global random sample of leaders, but rather a sampling of male and female leaders from high performing companies. Perhaps the differences are more pronounced in this data because the organizations supported the development of their leaders. It is also interesting because 64% of the data comes from managers and executives in the United States, and the remainder from countries scattered all over the world. Many of the countries in the data showed the same trends between men and women.

Read the full report here.

Are Women Better Leaders by Folkman-Zenger.pdf
Special thanks for permission to use this report and information to zengerfolkman.com