How Archetypes Can Help Women Tap Their Leadership Capacity

Much has been said—and continues to be said—about the issues facing women in the workplace.

While struggling with pay inequity, harassment, and work-life balance, many women still lament the metaphorical glass ceiling. That’s the invisible barrier preventing a given demographic (often understood to be females) from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.

Prize-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay believes that focus is counterproductive. “Ignore the class ceiling and do your work,” she says. “If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited.”

That’s reminiscent of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. “We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us,” she said, “but also the stereotypes we hold of ourselves.”

And then there was British prime minister Margaret Thatcher who famously said, “Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

Bestselling author Jocelyn Davis is a strong woman who adds thoughtful insight to the conversation. She’s the former head of R&D for a global leadership development consultancy and a respected researcher and commentator on social behaviors. Her latest book is Insubordinate: 12 New Archetypes for Women Who Lead.

“Insubordinate” is certainly a provocative word for a book title. So I asked Davis what message she intends to convey with that title.

“I want to say to women that we don’t have to be constrained by work structures and customs that were designed largely by and for men,” she says. “More important, we don’t have to be constrained by our own habits, fears, and limitations. The key message of Insubordinate is that women’s greatest strength is our range: our ability to tap into a wide variety of leadership approaches—or archetypes, as I call them—some of which will be comfortable, others a stretch, but all of which are available to us. We’re often told to ‘lean in,’ and that’s fine. But I think ‘break free’ is a better mantra.”

In her new book, Davis presents 12 timeless female archetypes. She reimagines the archetypes with stories of literary and everyday women who fought, cajoled, commanded, schemed, or blasted their way free of the restrictions that bound them.

Clearly, self-awareness plays in a leader’s success. In the modern workplace, self-awareness is arguably especially important for women.

“When you’re aware of your strengths, you can play to them rather than wasting time struggling to shore up your weaknesses,” Davis says. “This is true for us all, but women, especially, tend to downplay their strengths or don’t even realize they are strengths.”

To illustrate, Davis points to her Escapist archetype. “This is the person who has a nose for danger and sees discretion as the better part of valor. She’s wily; she knows how to dodge trouble, and she knows when to walk away. Now, most people wouldn’t regard that as a leadership strength, but it absolutely can be.”

Davis tells the story of Pam, an executive who quietly, cleverly kept herself and her team safe during a corporate bloodbath. “Pam knew she had Escapist magic,” Davis says, “and she knew how to use it.”

In today’s workplace, what are some of the challenges faced by women leaders that are different from those faced by their male counterparts?

“The biggest is the tightrope dilemma, Davis says. “Women must walk a slim line between competence and likability. Research shows that a man perceived as competent tends to be perceived also as likable, while the opposite holds for women: the more competent we seem, the less likable we seem, and the more likable, the less competent. A very competent woman who is open about her ambitions is especially apt to be disliked.”

So, Davis says, women walk the tightrope: “We smile, empathize, tout our team’s accomplishments over ours, and soften our requests, while at the same time striving to project skill and authority. Many of us do manage to keep our balance; it’s not impossible. But it is exhausting.”

Davis writes about twelve archetypes for woman who lead. How, one might wonder, did she settle on those particular twelve?

“The 12 archetypes are based on the four classical elements—fire, water, earth, air—each of which has a set of associations based in art, literature, and spiritual traditions.

• Fire: hot, direct, bright, external.
• Water: cool, indirect, dark, internal.
• Earth: down, steady, emotional, practical.
• Air: up, mercurial, intellectual, abstract.

“Combined,” Davis says, “these elements give us the full scope of leadership styles and strategies. Women leaders are usually advised to be hard-charging Amazons or collaborative Empaths, or to walk the tightrope and try to be both at once. But if we look to legendary and real-life women with the four elements in mind, we’ll see there’s a much wider array of archetypes we can draw upon—from the Claimant to the Snow Queen, from the Amiga to the Witch.”

There’s no doubt this is a fresh way to look at human performance. But how does an understanding of archetypes help women perceive and appreciate their own strengths as well as those of other women?

“When we have the language to talk about a range of types, it makes it easier to recognize them,” Davis says. “When, for example, we run across a woman like my former colleague Amanda—a sales executive who was ambitious, insistent, and good at compartmentalizing—rather than think, ‘Oh, she’s so bossy’ or ‘She’s just out for herself,’ we can think, ‘Aha! She’s the Empress.’ We can understand the fuller story that makes her successful. We can also recognize a wider variety of leadership qualities: the cool analysis of the Snow Queen, the warm charm of the Temptress, the sharp wit of the Jesteress.”

Davis says women are especially apt to tear down other women, especially those they see as different from themselves. “We’d do better, I think, to dial back on the snark and side-eye and dial up on the appreciation and learning.”

Can this book be helpful to men in the workplace (or any place)?

“I don’t care what gender you are, because this isn’t about identifying as a woman,” Davis says. “It’s about identifying with women—looking to women and their achievements, centering women’s stories, being inspired by women’s struggles and adventures.”

Davis says that for thousands of years of human history, examples of leadership have been almost entirely male. She wants to bring female examples to the fore and showcase female abilities.

“Women’s most overlooked strength is our range,” she says. “We are shapeshifters, multitaskers, jacks (or Jacquelines) of all trades. Men tend to lead by setting their sights on a goal and pursuing it in one dimension, forward and upward, counting on their unique talents to carry them along their hero’s journey. It’s a perfectly effective and efficient approach: James Bond never has to be Dirty Harry for the weekend. Women, in contrast, don’t have the luxury to operate in one dimension, nor should we even try. We lead by expanding our repertoire—by becoming the opera diva equally brilliant in the role of gentle Madama Butterfly, warlike Brünnhilde, proud Isolde, or vivacious Carmen. This expansion, both outward and inward, is the heroine’s journey. It’s how women grow, and it’s how we lead.”

Women have certainly made advances in the workplace in recent years. Yet studies show they are still dramatically underrepresented in leadership roles.

Even though some cultural elements clearly place women at a disadvantage, there are some forces in today’s society that are viewed by many as hell bent on emasculating men. How can women advance their own causes without engaging in zero-sum, us-against-them behaviors?

“I can see how it might look that way,’ Davis says. “Men are accustomed to winning most of the prizes, so when a woman wins a prize instead of them it can feel like a zero-sum game, and a rigged game at that. Women are indeed getting more opportunities nowadays. Should we turn down opportunities, though, lest we upset the men? That won’t help anyone.”

Davis says the real issue isn’t that men are being emasculated. It’s that men can no longer lead and succeed simply by showing up and being male.

“More is expected,” she says. “Like women, men would do well to expand their repertoire—which doesn’t mean ‘be more feminine,’ but rather ‘be a better, fuller human in your own unique way.’ There’s inspiration to be taken from many cultures and walks of life. Organizations, I believe, should be doing a better job of presenting these diverse examples of leadership and helping everybody learn from them.”