**5. The Importance of Both Male and Female Leadership Behaviors**

When the contributing elements of actions that are embedded within the "care" message by leaders are unpacked, a significant contribution from recognized female or women's leadership skills become visible. Care has been a fundamental concept in feminist research and is considered a key behavior in women's or feminine leadership. Other behaviors typically associated with women's or feminine leadership that were displayed during the pandemic included collaboration, self-determination, interpersonal orientation, and engagement toward others [35,36]. Unlike the gender-oriented leadership behaviors associated with masculinity through which leadership has traditionally been characterized, these skills have not previously received significant attention as being essential elements of all successful leadership [11,37]. The inclusion and emerging reliance of engaging the behaviors contributed by women's leadership now serve to broaden the scope of leadership behaviors that leaders need to develop and demonstrate if they are to be successful when navigating adaptive challenges such as the pandemic and complex environments.

Examples of successful leadership demonstrate a combination of stereotypical masculine and women's leadership behaviors. They personify a unique blend of the "care" approach that connects them to their stakeholders. The ability of a leader to combine specific, care-inducing behaviors invites leaders to focus on the socio-emotional needs of stakeholders, identify what leadership needs to provide, and craft the degree to which each selected behavior can be applied in support of establishing relatability while providing strategic direction to the constituents, followers, and employees. Having a blended construct can also support lessening future gender stereotyping in management where perceptions of how men and women 'should' act characterize how leaders 'should' lead as imparted by implicit leadership practices [38] (p. 113). Further, emphasizing the value of engaging a blend of leadership behaviors from both masculine and women's leadership can embrace leadership as an androgynous concept. Instead of leadership skills being identified or viewed from a biased, or stereotyped perspective, they represent a broad collection of behaviors that can be strategically combined to communicate and connect from a non-gendered, androgynous frame.

A blended, so-called androgynous approach can increase the perception of skills originating in women's leadership such as empathy, vulnerability, and self-awareness [39,40] to be indicators of strength. Another advantage is the relatability that the blend of skills embodies—supporting the activities of problem solving, being result-oriented, and being supportive of others, which are symbolic of effective modern leadership [41]. A sample of "care" behaviors that can support leader and leadership development to develop the relational–strategic competency is identified in Table 1.


**Table 1.** Sample of male and female leadership behaviors.

Table 1 has been developed from an aggregation of research identifying gendered traits in role theory and descriptive indices [34,42–46]. The behaviors have been listed with their gendered orientations. The blend of behaviors that can foster the appropriate blend of "care" behaviors is not prescriptive. The approach of determining which behaviors to draw on is also flexible. Even when the gendered origins are not identified, leaders can find they will combine behaviors that originate in masculine as well as women's leadership. A blended concept is supported by studies showing success in the blended application of leadership skills as the strength of a balanced skills portfolio for leaders in today's complex environment [11].

Bertram argued that androgynous leadership is the leadership of the future. She emphasized that "androgynous managers are courageous and willing to take risks as well as warm-hearted, understanding and supportive", and that "it has been shown that an androgynous mix of hard and soft skills contributes significantly to employee satisfaction and productivity" [47].
