When 29-year-old Rebecca Smith launched A.D. Morgan Corporation from her home in 1989, she had a single goal in mind: get contracts to build buildings.

Armed with five years of experience working for international construction firm Brown & Root Companies and a youthful naiveté about business ownership and entrepreneurship, Smith was determined to succeed on her own despite the nay-sayers who told her that a “girl couldn’t run a construction company.”

Smith proved them wrong: today, her efforts have culminated into a $50 million, Tampa, Fla.-based construction management and general contracting company that employs 40 and expects to be a $100 million firm within 10 years.

Smith attributes much of the success to A.D. Morgan’s corporate culture, characterized by teamwork, creativity and success. “The team we’ve created here and our culture are both very renegade,” says Smith. “When I’m asked about how we blazed through our early years, I tell people that I simply found people who are of like energy, then I let them be themselves by setting clear boundaries that don’t force anyone to conform with some politically corporate protocol.”

Smith is just one example how successful women are jockeying for and gaining power in the business management arena. Higher-profile successes include Carly Fiorina, who heads up $87 billion Hewlett Packard; Chairman of Harpo Entertainment Group Oprah Winfrey and Anne Mulcahy President and CEO of Xerox.

With more women staking their claim in the business world, the U.S. Small Business Administration has identified several reasons why they make good leaders and managers.

For starters, the SBA says more than half of women business owners (53 percent) emphasize intuition or "right-brain" instead of "left-brain," which emphasizes analysis, the processing of information methodically, and developing procedures. Intuitive processes often allow someone to see opportunities that aren't readily apparent and to know if they are right without the use of reason and analysis.

The SBA also says women business owners tend to reflect on decisions, and to weigh options and outcomes before taking action. In addition, women don't hesitate to gather information from business advisors and associates. The advantage here is the shared knowledge that is gathered through interpersonal interactions and liaisons.

Lastly, the SBA says women-owned businesses are generally smaller, sleeker, faster and more efficient than their predecessors. Because of this, studies have shown that woman-owned businesses are more likely to offer flex-time, tuition reimbursement, and job-sharing than U.S. businesses generally offer. 

According to the Center for Women’s Research, women tend to be less hierarchical than their male counterparts, take more time when making decisions, seek more information, and are more likely to draw upon input from others - including fellow business owners, employees and subject-matter experts.

Smith, for example, prides herself in her selective hiring process and relies heavily on in-house education and training, and requires all employees be trained to perform the tasks of the positions both above and below their own positions on an organization chart. A superintendent, for instance, can do the work of both a project manager and carpenter. “This achieves tremendous flexibility in both project delivery and company growth,” says Smith. “It proves that our people, their spirits and individual commitments are the company’s greatest current and future resource.”