Successful CEOs come from many different backgrounds, with each aspect of their lives contributing in a unique way to the rise of their careers. One related area of research that is emerging lately is the ways that gender can help contribute to a leader’s success. Some traits that have traditionally been associated with women have been shown to be quite beneficial for those in leadership positions. To explore this idea further, we looked at the case of Angela Roberts, CEO of U.S. Money Reserve. Her life and career display some of the most powerful traits that women often bring when heading up large organizations.
History and Background
Before diving into the specifics of Angela Roberts’ work as CEO, let us first take a look at the path she took to her current position. That path has been an unconventional one, including the decision to discontinue the pursuit of her undergraduate degree because of personal reasons. Shortly thereafter, she married and gave birth to her first child. She did not have the luxury of staying home to raise her child; instead, she needed to find work to pay the bills.
We're so excited that our CEO, Angela Koch, was featured on Forbes! Thank you, Angela, for continuously pushing us to grow both personally and professionally and creating such a supportive work environment. https://t.co/cSniHl5QgE
— U.S. Money Reserve (@USMoneyReserve) July 1, 2019
Roberts took a wide range of jobs in different fields, such as pharmaceuticals and electrical work. Though the jobs were diverse, she made a point of learning about every aspect of the companies at which she was employed, giving her a top-to-bottom understanding of the organizations. This depth of knowledge would benefit her later in her career as the companies for which she worked recognized her broad expertise and promoted her into higher-level jobs. This eventually led to her rising through the hierarchy at U.S. Money Reserve to the position of CEO.
Importance of Resilience
This brief look at this CEO’s history already showcases one of the defining traits associated with women in the workplace: resilience. Studies have shown that, in general, women show an increased capacity to recover from adversity when compared to men. Some experts see this as stemming from the ability of women to handle stress more effectively than men, perhaps because of their traditional role as family caretakers. This even extends to the mere perception of stress, with one study showing that only 64 percent of women (as opposed to more than 70 percent of men) say that a stressful event stops them from thinking at least once per day.
This resilience is evident in Roberts’ life and her ability to recover from early setbacks in her career and then go on to achieve lofty ambitions. Without a formal university degree, she took entry-level positions at a number of companies and then worked her way up into positions of leadership. She did this while also maintaining a home life and working to keep all aspects of her life as balanced as possible. This ability to continue working in the face of adversity goes a long way toward explaining some of this CEO’s success.
Entrepreneurial Mindset
Another trait of a good leader is the ability to take small, calculated risks—something that has been found more commonly in women than in men. This ability is a key part of being an entrepreneur, a pursuit that rewards risk-taking directed and tailored toward a specific payoff. In fact, many experts are of the opinion that the ability to push the boundaries of a business’s operation into riskier territory is an important part of growth, a major goal of most companies. This flexibility is a trait more common in women than in men and, once again, highlights one of the advantages that women often have in leadership roles.
This type of entrepreneurial spirit has been a hallmark of Roberts’ career from its very early stages. An example of this is a task that she undertook for an early mentor. Though Roberts lacked experience in the field, her mentor asked her to help him get his ranch certified for its non-hormone-treated cattle. Roberts embraced the new challenge and worked to expand his ranching business—and her own skills—to get the task accomplished. Over the course of this work, she took what could have been an unwieldy task and created an orderly process to accomplish it.
Humility as Leadership Tool
Another useful leadership trait that is often more associated with women than men is the ability to show humility. For many men in the workplace, the default mode of impressing others is through confidence, which is meant to imply competence. While most experts agree that confidence is good, they also agree that, when displayed in excess, it can be a weakness. That’s because there is a general understanding in the workplace that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and an inability to recognize one’s weaknesses can be a blind spot.
By contrast, leaders who embrace their own mistakes without shying away from them tend to perform better overall. This behavior helps inspire employees to follow their lead and can encourage an atmosphere of organizational strength, rather than one that encourages unearned confidence. This is something that Roberts emphasizes in her work at U.S. Money Reserve. She strongly encourages herself and others to know who they are and recognize their strengths. According to Roberts, working toward maximizing those strengths is a better use of energy and time than trying to fill the role of someone with a different set of skills.
How Empathy Predicts Success
Perhaps one of the most impactful skills available to a modern leader is that of empathy. In fact, some studies have shown this to be the single most important leadership trait for predicting success. This trait, often associated more with women than men, has been shown to increase cooperation and commitment by members of a workplace. Empathy in leaders helps employees and customers alike feel heard—and promotes a feeling that everyone’s experience matters and is important to the ongoing success of a company. This, in turn, encourages people to take more initiative and direct their efforts more fully toward goals.
This is an area in which Roberts has thrived over the years and is one of the central tenets of her leadership style. She focuses much of her attention as a leader on her employees and works to listen to their feedback so that she can head her organization more effectively. She also works to empower her team through education in every aspect of the business. In this way, employees can more fully participate in the company’s operations and more competently contribute to its overall mission. All of these methods stem from this CEO’s commitment to empathy and understanding.
Though women are often underrepresented in leadership positions, it’s clear from the above overview that many of the traits traditionally associated with women are incredibly effective for predicting success as a leader. These traits include resilience, an entrepreneurial mindset, humility, and empathy. The success of CEO Angela Roberts at U.S. Money Reserve is just one example of the impact women can have when working as leaders of large organizations. Though men can, of course, exhibit the above traits as well, these traits’ relative prevalence among women is a strong argument in favor of the continued diversification of leadership roles in the workplace.
About U.S. Money Reserve
U.S. Money Reserve is a leading precious metals company that focuses on tailoring its offerings to the specific needs of customers. The company accomplishes this with a well-educated team of account executives who possess a deep understanding of precious metals and the role these metals can play in personal financial freedom. The company benefits from the institutional knowledge of its president Philip N. Diehl, a former director of the U.S. Mint. Diehl’s background in both personal finance and institutional policy allows the company to draw on a range of expertise when assisting customers. This approach has helped earn the company an AAA rating from the Business Consumer Alliance.
