He asked, “What’s your favorite position?”. She said “CEO”.

I truly believe that we have placed emphasis on the masculine energy for too long in business and kind of undervalued the feminine. Women can be excellent at business if they learn to balance their power and feminine principles. Most women entering the business field let go of their femininity, without realizing that it is actually their greatest strength.

Balancing the Feminine & Masculine Energy in Business

Many times, women feel they hit a roadblock in business and can’t really figure out what caused it. Most likely, they would have not resonated with the overly masculine qualities that they mistakenly felt they needed to succeed. It probably didn’t feel natural to them.

So, how do we lead with our feminine energy in business? 

1. Connection: The feminine energy cares, connects, and leads with an exceptional EQ or Emotional Quotient. Leadership and customer service are about understanding people and their needs. We need to change our mindset about care and connection. When we show care, we allow team members to connect with each other and collaborate with ideas, service, and implementation strategies. 
2. Creativity: The feminine energy does not think in a linear fashion. Instead, it thinks about solutions, the why’s and the how’s. Business is all about providing solutions and what better way than to honor the energy that can be creative and think out-of-the-box.
3. Support: The feminine energy and masculine energy are there in everyone, irrespective of gender. Provide an environment of support where the logical is balanced with the creative and the practical is balanced with nurture.

My Personal Experience as A Women Entrepreneur in the UAE

I have seen a monumental change in the way women work and lead businesses in the UAE in the last decade. According to the latest numbers, over 23,000 Emirati businesswomen run projects worth over AED 50 billion in the country and that’s truly inspiring.

I have had a bird’s eye view as a pioneer in the wellness industry and it has been a pleasure to see the strong desire amongst Emirati women to become financially independent and professionally successful. It is really heartening to know that the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap report has ranked UAE as a leading country in gender equality in the region. Not just that, the UAE had the highest number of women on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen in 2020 with 23 Emirati women on the list.

I feel this is mainly due to two reasons – a series of gender-empowerment initiatives taken in the public and private sector in the last ten years, coupled with the commitment and the enthusiasm from the Emirati women themselves to benefit from these opportunities. In the last decade, female entrepreneurship across the board, including the expats in the UAE, has seen massive growth.

Traditionally, women have always been the backbone of family life and the social structure in the country. But now, the traditional role of women has changed over the last two generations, creating a positive bridge between the traditional and the modern without sacrificing the culture and heritage of the UAE.

Concluding Thoughts

At Illuminations, we are proud to be a wellness business founded by a woman, catering to a clientele that is 75 percent women and with a team that is 90 percent women. 

I feel that my goal remains clear that we need to leverage both – our masculine and feminine energy – to excel in business. Whether we are male or female, our role is to bring out the feminine energy and blend it with masculine energy while making decisions and running the business. We should also actively encourage the same in our teams. It’s beautiful alchemy when we start valuing our people and the collective energy they bring to our organizations and focus less on the result.