They have 2 different styles of communication
Women are naturally good at developing relationships, nurturing, caring and sharing whereas men tend not to be as sensitive and prefer to 'get on with it'. Its always emotions over speed. But many managers are out of touch with this 2 fundamental issue between a male and female in their departments.
Communicating With the Opposite Gender
Managing and communicating with people is a skill that for most of us doesn't come naturally. It's even more challenging communicating with the opposite gender effectively.
- I was having a meeting with a manager and his personal assistant recently. The p.a. had a list of things to discuss in regard to improving their joint office systems. Instead of providing the male manager with a brief summary of each issue she wanted to raise, the p.a. delivered a sermon for each one. You could see the male manager switching off after the first couple of sentences and becoming impatient. She, on the other hand didn't notice anything.
- In another company a female manager never received any recognition from her male boss that she was doing a great job. In fact she felt very downhearted and left the organisation because she felt she wasn't appreciated. Her ex-boss told me afterwards that she was the best manager in his organisation and he couldn't understand why she left.
The Sad Truth
Often managers are promoted to their positions, not because they know how to manage people but because they are good at doing their job. A salesperson may be great at selling the products of his organisation and then gets promoted to Sales Manager. He knows the product and makes plenty of sales and suddenly he is faced with managing a team of salespeople, a totally different experience. And for some unknown reason it is automatically assumed he has the skills to handle this new position.
The Final Word
Inmost organisations, there is always a high proportion of male managers to females. This causes a major challenge in the work environment even though many of them are unaware it is an important issue.
Learn how to communicate with the opposite gender in your organisation and in your life. Read or attend courses on how to communicate with the opposite gender. It will do wanders for your personal and career.
