In recent weeks the British people have seen a potentially defining moment in it’s political history as two opposing parties came together to form a coalition government as they take on the challenge of stabilising the country.

There are sceptics, doubters and experts that see nothing but failure. How can two parties with such opposing views really work together?

What I am wondering is would it make any difference if the two leaders were women?

Would the tactics have been the same? Would we be looking at the possibility of a successful government in a more positive light?  Come to think of it would we have voted any differently?

Before you answer, consider the following.

A few years ago I came across quote in Business week from Bruce Nussbaum who said “We are in the midst of a cultural shift that involves leadership shifting from the voice of authority to the voice of understanding. Listening, understanding, connecting and communicating are the key skills the business culture today and the essence of true leadership”

If we are to believe that this is the case, then when it comes to skills like listening, understanding and connecting women simply have the upper hand. They rock.

In her book  The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing The World, Dr. Helen Fisher argues that “The twenty-first century economic community are going to need the natural talents of women. …Women have many exceptional faculties bred deep in history: a talent for words; a capacity to read non-verbal cues; emotional sensitivity; empathy; patience; an ability to do and think several things simultaneously;…a penchant for long term planning; a gift for networking and negotiating; and a preference for cooperating, reaching consensus, and leading via egalitarian teams”

There are countless other books and pieces of research which bring out similar ideas.

Tom Peter’s author of the best seller “In search of excellence” describes in his later work that there is a set of attributes found more commonly in women than in men.

• Women practice improvisation skills with greater ease than men
• Women are more self determined and more trust sensitive than men
• Women appreciate and depend upon their intuition more than men do
• Women, unlike men, focus naturally on empowerment not on power
• Women develop relationships with greater facility than men.
• Women are far less rank conscious than men.

Men like structure. We like boundaries and rules which define or describe ‘our place.’ Which is why I commonly find that men relate to being a leader as a position that you hold as oppose to a behaviour you exhibit. Men see leadership is a task of tangible outcomes and not the emotive animal that it is.

So would the coalition government stand a greater chance of success if the leaders were women?

Well, I guess we will never know for sure but I do believe we could say that a female leadership team maybe better equipped to lead a collaborative team than their male counter parts. They would probably connect with greater ease and comfort than their male counter parts and listen far more.

There is one factor to consider above all of this that could pour cold water on to some of these arguments. The corporate world is still very male dominated and the danger would be that in order to get ahead women in more senior roles are having to take on the traits of their male counterparts, forced to operate in manner that is the opposite of what is required in the ‘new’ economy.

So what do you see in your organisations and businesses?

Do you see difference between male and female leaders? Do you agree that those differences exists and indeed are they important in today’s world?

Yesterday I was at a networking meeting where a friend shared the results of an interesting study about the impact of mental conditioning on life expectancy. Before I tell you about that, I want to give you a little background.

He began talking about his recent trip to Australia’s Steve Irwin Zoo and how he witnessed a miracle in the tiger enclosure. He saw a young trainer swimming about in the man made pool with not just one but several tigers playing with her in the water.

I am assuming you have seen and appreciate how big tigers are. You really don’t want to be messing about with them!

So amazed was he that he asked one the other trainers how this was possible. “It’s all about attitude” he was told. “You have to have positive mental attitude because these amazing cats can smell fear.” He was told that the training team approach the tigers with love each morning and play with them and at night before they sleep the same happens. He was also told that if on any day any member of the team was not feeling 100% they were not allowed to interact with the tigers.

So what has all this go to do with business?

Well, isn’t it true that at times we feel like the people out there we do business with are like tigers on the prowl? Now, if you were to approach these people whether they are sales prospects, suppliers, debtors or partners with an mental attitude which was even just a little negative, what do you think happens?

Human’s can ‘smell’ that fear too. We can see when someone is not 100% confident. We get a gut instinct that tells us that something is not right. don’t we?

So a key to our success is adopting the a positive mental attitude. We have to think and act like a champion. I say act as well because just thinking it is not enough.

What happens when you try and sell when you’re not feeling 100% in your mind? What happens when you try and have those difficult conversation and don’t believe 100% in what you are doing? How much time do you spend giving yourself “love” or do you spend all day beating yourself up?

Mohammed Ali always told himself “I am the greatest” win, lose or draw. AND he acted like the greatest. He trained like the greatest, he spoke like the greatest, he walked like the greatest, he thought like the greatest, what did he become?

The Mayo clinic in the US did study that showed that optimists are healthier, recover fester and live long then their pessimist counterparts. It was calculated that on average some one who is an optimist will out live pessimist by 16 years!

Just by adopting a more positive attitude in life can increase your life expectancy, all you have to do is think about it!