ept of relational leadership forms the core of what she defines as the primary leadership quality of women; that while men talk a good game about inclusion, openness, and teamwork, it is women that actually make such things possible and happen. Both authors make strong arguments for their cases, and neither is particularly inaccurate in their appraisal. However, with two such strong authors and competent researchers compiling such significant works, one has to wonder how the two approaches could have been more similar given the strength of the argument each makes.
             Relational leadership is, in very short terms, the ability of a leader to manage employees through personal connection and team-building that relies upon those connections to foster a sense of belonging, loyalty, and inclusion. But, it is much more complex than that. What Fletcher's work asserts is that women are generally more naturally inclined to create cooperative teams, to cede control among perceived equals, and to share credit more easily than men. Her research defines relational leadership as a practice rooted in "mutuality and reciprocity," (Fletcher, 2001). There are four types of relational practice: preserving, mutual empowering, self-achieving, and creating team.
             Preserving is to "preserve the life and well-being of the project by taking on tasks that would protect it from harm or prevent future problems," (Fletcher, 2001). What this includes is the shouldering of "responsibility for tasks that [are] outside the technical definition of the job and doing them with the attitude of 'doing whatever it takes', even if that meant putting aside a personal agenda or sacrificing some symbols of status, a willingness to "minimize power and status differences", a willingness "to be inconvenienced by...putting up with whatever procedures are necessary to get the job done," and to vie
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