The relationships among leader gender, social and emotional skills, and charismatic leadership were examined from a dataset of 108 senior leaders and 325 of their direct followers in numerous organizations, including universities, government agencies, and for-profit companies. Results showed that female leaders scored higher on social and emotional skills, and follower ratings of charismatic leadership, while social and emotional skills mediated the relationship between leader gender and charismatic leadership. Surprisingly, leader tenure predicted leader social skills but was unrelated to leader emotional skills, which demonstrated the strongest relationship to leader gender and charismatic leadership. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.
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