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In their book, Leadership and the Sexes, Michael Gurian and Barbara Annis look at the science of male/female brain differences and how these differences impact their approach to leadership.  They note these specific management style differences:

• Male leaders tend to be moire prescriptive in their management -- they will prescribe, direct, tell people what to do more aggressively, in general, than women do.
• Female leaders tend to be more descriptive in their management -- they tend to describe what they are looking for and spend more time detailing to employees -- and hearing from employees -- how to accomplish the goal...
• In conflict management, men tend to seek out more direct conflict than women...
• Although certainly many men are conflict-avoidant with other men, males who usually show no aversion to conflict can become conflict-avoidant, or even relatively ineffective in conflict, when facing workplace conflicts with women. 
• Because women remember interactions, including conflicts, longer than men, men may perceive that women are holding on to a grudge, and thus distrust female managers.
• When judging employees, women tend to be more forgiving than men are of others, especially men who fail.

[Note: Gurian and Annis sprinkled this commentary with frequent reminders that there are clearly exceptions to these rules.]

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