6 Personality Traits The Most Successful Women Have In Common

Do you have them?

By StyleCaster — Written on Sep 08, 2021

Photo: Nick Starichenko / Shutterstock

If you’ve read Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In cover to cover and can quote paragraphs from Sophia Amoruso‘s #GirlBoss, you might be interested in this study that claims to have found the six personality traits that all successful women have in common.

Lean In's website describes the book and movement as "want[ing] a world where people of every gender can pursue their dreams without bias or other barriers holding them back. Where girls grow up to be confident, resilient leaders.

Where more women run companies and countries." They continue by saying, "we are driven by the belief our society and economy would be better if women and girls were valued as equal to men and boys."

Caliper, a global management consulting firm, set about uncovering the key characteristics by studying a group of 85 women who were all in top management positions. Each executive took a personality test and answered a series of surveys about their successes.

With this equal evaluation in mind, these executives answered questions about how they lead their companies.

The research found the six traits most commonly shared among professionally successful women are:

Assertiveness
Aggressiveness
Empathy
Ego-strength
Stress tolerance
Energy

According to an explanation Caliper gave Business Insider, the study results mean that successful women are straightforward in their communication style, can move projects forward, can understand and relate to the feelings of others, are comfortable in high-stress environments, and are enthusiastic about their work.

On the other hand, qualities that might slow down success were also uncovered in the study. Apparently, women “with a high level of accommodation” who care too much about what other people think of them are likely to struggle in leadership roles.

Of course, this is not to say that if sometimes you accommodate others you will not be a successful leader. But making sure everyone is happy is important.

Collectively, the results of the study aren’t exactly mind-boggling—it seems obvious that you need to be able to stand your ground, be excited about your career, and not crack under pressure if you want to climb the corporate ladder all the way to the top, but it’s certainly a helpful reminder for those of us who struggle with any or all of these traits.

It takes a lot to take charge and lead let alone run a company. But we can all be a girl boss, you just have to want it. Like Lean In says, "together, we can make work work for women in a way it never has before."