The study by researchers in Canada, Spain and France discovered that women more quickly and rationally aligned their self-awareness with the way their peers viewed them, while men continued to rationalise and inflate their self-image over time.
The study examined 221 MBA students who had more than six years of work experience, BusinessNewsDaily reported.
When asked to rate themselves on key leadership skills - self-confidence, self-management, interpersonal understanding and behavioural flexibility - both men and women initially rated themselves higher on each trait than did their peers, the research found.
However, over the course of six months, women's self-assessments dropped more steeply than did men's. By the end, women's self-perceptions had essentially converged with their peer's ratings.
The researchers believe the results show women close the gap between self- and peers' ratings faster than men, exhibiting more sensitivity to social cues.
Researcher Margarita Mayo of Spain's IE Business School said greater sensitivity, however, doesn't necessarily constitute an advantage for women in gaining positions of leadership.
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"Aligning their self-image to reflect what others think of them represents an advance in self-awareness, which is a big step in leadership development," Mayo said.
"But, when self-awareness entails doubts about one's competence, it can induce paralysis unless women take their cue from their peers to seek out the training and coaching that will enable them to take on new challenges," Mayo said.
The study was published in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education.