So how does Yin and Yang help us with strategic planning in business?
In Chinese philosophy, the yin and yang are used to think about how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent.
The yin embraces the moon, the feminine, the passive, the emotional, and creativity while the yang represents the sun, the masculine, the active, the rational, and planning.
In entrepreneurship, we can think of yin as being all about knowledge, discovery, and playing with ideas and being open to new possibilities. The yang is concerned with establishing markets and putting strategy and structure in place.
For entrepreneurs, life is a journey on a winding path between the yin and yang, sometimes venturing deep on one side, but then wandering back to the other side. It is only by going back and forth between ideas and markets that an entrepreneur is able to create a fit between their service and client/market (Carlson, 2018).
A successful business is built on relationships. Your ability to understand your own balance of feminine and masculine energy, as well as the balance of others, will directly impact how and with whom you do business. To clarify, when we talk about masculine and feminine energy, we are talking about just that - energy. Men and women each possess both masculine and feminine energies and qualities (Kirstein, 2023).
As noted, masculine energy is encompassed in strategy, drive, focus, and ambition. Feminine energy is found in creativity, intuition, compassion, and empathy. These are all important and essential qualities in business. While the masculine qualities tended to be dominant, we are seeing change, and many of the most successful businesses in the world are now run by both men and women. Increasingly, we are seeing feminine qualities being integrated into modern business models.
While it’s true that men and women possess both feminine and masculine qualities, generally speaking, men and women tend to have greater strengths in their respective masculine and feminine traits. Studies show that women in management positions tend to place more emphasis on communication, cooperation, and nurturing than men, as well as having more communal qualities.
Men tend to show more strength than women in the areas of focus, drive, and risk-taking, all of which are integral to business success.
For a business to thrive, it needs to embrace diversity of thought in an inclusive culture with balanced individuals. Balanced enterprises are collaborative, and build a coaching culture based on open and honest feedback. They try to build both Yin and Yang qualities in their leaders.
At Nomad Haven, we strive to embody our feminine qualities in a supportive space.
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