New Delhi: A recent study by McKinsey & Company has the writing on the wall: workplaces with more women in senior management posts perform better financially than firms with fewer women. The study, done on Europe's top companies, showed that the performance of woman bosses vis-à-vis male counterparts had achieved greater capital growth, stronger underlying earnings and bigger increase in share price. But what's the picture close to home?

Staff prefers tough bosses:

But what if that tough boss is female? Male managers who are thought to be unkind, insensitive and unaware of others' feelings are not considered to be any worse as a result. But heaven save a female manager who displays the same behaviour. Female managers who can't read unspoken emotions, such as facial expressions, posture, and tone of voice, are seen as less caring and thus receive lower ratings of satisfaction from their staff.

The findings, published earlier this month in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, was based on a study of 44 part-time students who were employed in a position with supervisory responsibilities as part of their MBA course, and 78 managers from four companies in the hospitality industry, to see how good they were at spotting emotions.

It's roses nearly all the way. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, biotech entrepreneur and managing director of Biocon India and Chanda Kochhar, joint managing director of ICICI Bank, might be the faces you see on magazine covers, but there's a growing tribe that's spearheading entertainment, HR, sports, advertisement, admin despite having to straddle home and the world.

Secrets of her success

At 26, Monisha Advani floated her own company. Eleven years later, the new managing director-designate of Ranstad India says being a woman has clearly worked. The ability to empathise with a growing segment of the workforce other women has played a big part in her success. Her innovative strategies that tested managerial ability by "selling sandwiches for a profit and getting donations from corporates for a cause, all in a couple of hours," has become an industry standard.