Getting the right Styles of the Sexes
Last week Gender IQ and Cisco launched the results of our ‘Styles of the Sexes’ survey, which looked at the working approaches of men and women. The findings indicate that 45 percent of working women agreed with the statement ‘women have to be better than men to succeed in the workplace’. In contrast, only 26 percent of men questioned believed this to be true. Like me, these findings will not come as a surprise to many career women. But at the same time, the Society for Human Resource Management states that 74 percent of companies have diversity programmes in place. So where is the disconnect? The issue is that many programmes sidestep perhaps the most striking diversity component in the workplace: the personality differences between men and women. Without an understanding of Gender Intelligence – the ability to respond with finesse and savvy to gender generated issues – this one topic will continue to affect men and women in every business situation.
Picture the scenario, a meeting starts and one of the male executives suggests that a female colleague be the note taker. Either knowingly or unknowingly, everyday both men and women fall into specific behavioural patterns and stereotypes in professional settings. When this occurs, the results are damaging for everyone involved, particularly for organisations that, by doing so, limit the potential of their employees.
This is exactly why we need to improve our Gender Intelligence. But here’s the shocker, many corporations are not ready to hear that men and women have different communication styles that can seriously impact their ability to work effectively together, even though the survey highlights that the majority of both men and women (88 percent) prefer to work in equally mixed teams.
To address these gender issues, we have been running Gender IQ seminars for the past seven years, helping senior professionals to understand the underlying nature of gender differences and how they can manifest in the corporate world.
In particular, managers need to spot issues and learn response techniques that mesh with their unique personalities. For example, one executive might respond to an uncomfortable situation with humour, while another executive’s sense of humour could be the kiss of death to a touchy scenario. The key? Know yourself well and then know the nuances and techniques to handle gender differences in a professional setting. If not, the subconscious stereotyping of men and women will continue, as those women who most closely resemble the image of their male peers will be the only ones arriving at the boardroom door.
If corporations are serious about retaining women in their organizations, then they need to send the message that different is equal and complementary. Otherwise, they miss out on tapping into a balanced and highly effective talent pool. As Nikki Walker, Director of Inclusion & Diversity at Cisco put it, “Understanding the difference between the genders will enable organisations to manage mixed teams more effectively and to connect more effectively with customers.”
If corporations do nothing, they have made a choice – that they are happy with the status quo. Doing nothing is commercially damaging as balanced teams produce a 53% higher return on equity than those that are not. Companies have nothing to lose and everything to gain by investing time and resources in Gender IQ, so they can create balanced organisation that gets better results.
Last updated on November 16th, 2009
