Strong and successful alpha women have been a part of our creative world, along with feminine men. I love that we get to pick the persona that fits us best, but role reversals are also a source of confusion.
Let’s be clear—this has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Who we are attracted to is something we are born with. But when it comes to portraying masculine and feminine traits in our businesses and beyond, we have a choice.
I am an alpha and I find great joy and comfort being in charge of my destiny. I prefer to lead instead of follow. My life choices have entirely been my own and I suffer and celebrate the consequences of them. Many other women like me were taught to be responsible for ourselves, often to the dismay of my mother’s generation. Her stern warning that “men don’t like women like you” still rings in my ears.
As I further develop my PhotoBizCoach courses and one-on-one coaching programs, I am diving deeper and deeper into the topics of male and female energies and how they are enacted. Today, I am sharing with you just a snippet of the impact these energies can have on our creative business.
Task-oriented mindsets in decision making, organizing, making money, paying bills… are in the masculine energy. When we think about community, wonder how everyone is doing, want everybody to be happy, and are in touch with our feelings… we are in the feminine energy.
Until a few years ago masculine was the more desirable energy in developing careers, and seemingly the only way for entrepreneurs to make a buck. Why? Because businesses and workplaces have largely been built by men who instilled and followed these rules. It was necessary for women to emulate that type of masculinity in order to be taken seriously and get ahead. It always amazes me that the Art Buyer is a woman, but most Art Directors, and Creative Directors are men. Meaning women were all but forced to become alpha to push those boundaries.
Many of you have stepped outside of the traditional workplace 9-5 lifestyle and started working for yourselves. Here’s something awesome about entrepreneurs: We are narrowing the gender gap in leadership roles. For every 10 men who start their own businesses, seven women are doing the same.
Leadership requires knowledge of ourselves and what makes other people tick. Did you know women are the biggest decision makers in their households when it comes to spending? So unless you don’t want to sell to women, it would be wise to have enough feminine energy on your team to know how to hit what matters to us. Developing your feminine energy or collaborating with women who bring the feminine to the table can only improve your business and will help you to attract women buyers.
As a woman, I have struggled in the past with how to be feminine outside of the workplace and masculine within my career. Women ultimately have to learn how to reconcile both and consciously shift from one into the next.
On the flip side, men need feminine energy. Without the feminine there is no passion, no opposing attraction, no balance. Men need to feel, but feeling is not their strongest suit, so they’d rather fix things or get stuff done. To grow personally and professionally we want to embrace both sides and bring conscious awareness forward. The goal should be to know when a situation requires one energy or the other.
Next week I will discuss the new masculine and how the traditional alpha man is changing. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts about this perhaps unusual business topic.
Gawd, I get all this shit at home… I don’t want it coming through my inbox at work.
I launched Cosmopolitan in the UK in the early 70’s and had all that “Female” stuff from Helen Gurley Brown to deal with then… now it’s a thousand per cent worse and look where we are.. the World’s about to implode and the Saudi’s still treat women like crap.
Enough… lets get back to some good ol Victorian ethics… corporal punishment for unruly kids as well.
Maybe your efforts should be directed at the US Police forces and get them slightly less energetic with their guns.
My vote’s for Hilary by the way… you lot get Trump and jeez you’ll be right in it up to your necks…. sleaze? Clinton will look tame by the time he’s had 5 years in Washington.
Have a fun day, CBK