Topic > Gender Communication Styles - 1525

“Male and female speech differ in various ways. Female language emphasizes rapport and relationships, while male language focuses on reporting, performing tasks, and controlling situations” (Walker, 2015). Among the various styles of leadership approach, researchers most commonly make a distinction between two approaches: task-oriented style and people-oriented style. The task-oriented style focuses on production (direction, assignment of tasks, focus on initial structure) and the people-oriented style focuses on relationship (support, communication, active interaction). Males are more direct in decision making and autocratic, so they take little consideration of others. “Women succeed because they possess soft skills that include “the ability to communicate, the ability to motivate, the ability to lead and delegate, and the ability to negotiate” (Barrett & Davidson, 2006). “Female leaders display a high level of transformational leadership compared to their male counterparts. The transformational leader's emphasis on mentoring, empowerment, and encouragement of subordinates reflects greater commonality than their male counterparts, who rely on transactional leadership: enforcing authority through rewarding and punishing subordinates” (Barrett & Davidson,