Gay men may continue to face workplace harassment (except at companies like Starbucks and American Express, right?), but interestingly, they just make better bosses. Self-described career leadership expert Kirk Snyder conducted a five-year study to evaluate gays vs. heteros in the workplace and found “reported levels of job engagement, job satisfaction and workplace morale among employees reporting to white-collar gay men to be upwards of 35% higher than nationally reported statistics.”
Is it because they’re more communicative? Better adept at handling conflict? Can help their underlings choose the right health care plan and tie?
So what does being gay or male have to do with successful business leadership? The reason gay men are outperforming the good-old-boys in business is due to a new paradigm for effective leadership that is proving to meet the needs and values of today’s empowered workforce. Identified as the G Quotient, it is seven leadership principles rooted in the professional worldview of gay men that develops through learned skills such as adaptability, intuitive communication and creative problem solving. In the workplace, these principles are responsible for generating unprecedented levels of professional commitment among their employees. In fact, it’s why 84 percent of more than one thousand employees reporting to gay men across four major economic sectors report high morale within their working environments — compared to 40 percent nationally.
Ah, now we get it: Gay men do “spirit fingers” better.
Why Gay Men Are Outperforming the Good-Old-Boys in Business [HuffPo]
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Mike
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tonylord
Another possibility is that out gay men tend to work for employers that are good at recognising talent, respecting employees etc. ie employee morale could be not directly related to the sexuality of the boss…
S.A.H.
Having not yet read the book I don’t know what each of the 7 principles stand for but I hope one of them is being a more decent human being. As a gay boss myself, I believe I have a better relationship with my employees because I try and treat everyone fairly. Straight men play favorites, e.g. “Which (straight male employee) plays golf with them or accompanies them to a strip bar on biz trips.” Gay men focus more on work because they have to in order to succeed. They have no ol’ boys network to help them slide through based on what fraternity they belonged to etc. Maybe the world is finally catching up to us!