Honestly, I didn't suggest women struggle with business vision - it was a female coaching friend who made this claim! And she has developed a very powerful workshop to help them with it - which is what she was explaining to me and others in our group.
The workshop involves three experiential exercises which help women explore who they are, where they are now, and where they want to be in x years. The exercises really work and by the end the participants do take away a very clear personal vision. We all thought it was a great piece of design - no surprise there. What surprised me, however, was the subsequent level of challenge in two areas, ie:
(a) Whether women really do have difficulties with business vision; and
(b) Whether the workshop was too focused on personal vision rather than vision for the business
Interestingly, it was the women in the group who were most concerened about these, whereas I (as the only male) wasn't. So why wasn't I? It emerged in the debate that one of my unconscious assumptions about business vision is that, for senior leaders, the business vision is simply a product of their personal vision - so challenge (b) is irrelevant. And I also carry an assumption that thinking challenge (b) is relevant is an unhelpful belief for any leader seeking to create a compelling business vision - so immediately rebutting challenge (a)!
My assumption may be driven more by my character style than my gender. But I do know that one of the big gender differences is that men tend to self-actualise through work, so it is not surprising that their personal and business visions should converge. Women typically see work as only one of several options for self-actualisation, so aligning personal and business visions requires a more deliberate step.
Do any other men (or women) want to comment?!