Gender and Communications in Business

Neelam Dhawan of Microsoft India; Kiran Mazumdar of Biocon, Lalita Gupte of ICICI Bank, Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC Bank, and the list continues. With women working head on with men, it is important to understand, respect, and bridge the communication differences between men and women.

Let us analyse what are the differences between the males and females, which lead to communication gap / grievances in the work place:
a. The most glaring disparity is in the listening styles of males and females.
As men and women talk, women rely heavily on non-verbal cues eg, nodding and smiling, to indicate that they understand (not necessarily agree with) their perspective. Where as men keep silent, and nod only when they agree with the speaker's perspective.
b. Women are likely to form deeper personal relationships and bondings that are longer lasting than men, who form business relationships just to do their purpose of doing business and nothing more. At times, because of this, they also tend to take business problems home and their managerial abilities suffer.
c. Generally men use language to preserve their status and independence.
Women generally use language to create connection and intimacy.
d. In case of conflict, women tend to rely on indirect forms of aggression rather than direct expression of disagreement. For eg. instead of confronting some body in case of conflict, she prefers to email him later.
e. Approach to solve problems also differs b/w males and females. When women deal with problems, they view it from a holistic angle, where as men tend to look for the surest and quickest way to find a solution.
f. It is found that women are generally transformational leaders, form long term relationships, mentor, inspire and foster innovation and teamwork. Men, in contrast were more transactional - appealing to subordinates' self-interest and using reward-punishment incentive.

With changed times, and both the genders pacing up the corporate hierarchy, it is imperative for all of us to bridge this communication gap between males and females.

I recommend following for the women managers, while working with male colleagues:
a. Market yourself well. Maintain your pace in the competition. Let others know your achievements, results and ideas before someone else takes credit for them!
b. Always speak up! Never allow men to misbehave with yourself. Stand up for yourself.
c. Take more confident decisions. Don't use unsure words like "Don't you think so" etc. which display you under confidence.
d. While presenting, don't indulge in story telling. Be logical and avoid giving unnecessary information.
e. Avoid discussing anything too personal. Instead talk about job-related issues and current affairs.
f. Be direct and straight forward in the criticism. Don't dilute the comments by being indirect.
g. Don't be too polite. No need to say sorry just to be polite. Apologise only if you are wrong.
h. No need to take male comments personally. Learn to separate business matters from your personal feelings.

Recommendations for Males, while working with Female colleagues.
a. Invest time in building a rapport.
b. Make a polite conversation with women, by using words such as "please” and "thank you" when making a request or giving an order.
c. Avoid dominating conversations. Listen her well.
d. Be aware that women tend to take thing more personally since relationships are importanct for women. What might be just a direct communication for you, might be too harsh for them.
e. Respect her abilities. Most women take their work responsibilities very seriously and expect you to take them seriously.
f. Don't call a woman names like "sweetheart", "honey", "dear" or "darling". Unless they know you very well they will probably think you are chauvinistic and condescending.
g. Work on creating a friendly and comfortable environment
h. Control any outbursts of anger or frustration. Women are uncomfortable when men yell and curse.
i. Pay attention when women are speaking. Use good eye contact, nod while listening.
j. Encourage women to speak more succinctly by asking questions or bringing them back to the point.

Hey, now some cool content!!

JOB APPLICATION

This is an actual job application a 17 year old boy submitted at a McDonald's fast-food establishment in Florida... and they hired him because he was so honest and funny!

NAME: Greg Bulmash

SEX: Not yet. Still waiting for the right person.

DESIRED POSITION: Company's President or Vice President. But seriously, whatever's available. If I was in a position to be picky, I wouldn't be applying here in the first place.

DESIRED SALARY: $185,000 a year plus stock options and a Michael Ovitz style severance package. If that's not possible, make an offer and we can haggle.

EDUCATION: Yes.

LAST POSITION HELD: Target for middle management hostility.

SALARY: Less than I'm worth.

MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT: My incredible collection of stolen pens and post-it notes.

REASON FOR LEAVING: It sucked.

HOURS AVAILABLE TO WORK: Any.

PREFERRED HOURS: 1:30-3:30 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL SKILLS?: Yes, but they're better suited to a more intimate environment.

MAY WE CONTACT YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER?: If I had one, would I be here?

DO YOU HAVE ANY PHYSICAL CONDITIONS THAT WOULD PROHIBIT YOU FROM LIFTING UP TO 50 LBS?: Of what?

DO YOU HAVE A CAR?: I think the more appropriate question here would be "Do you have a car that runs?"

HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY SPECIAL AWARDS OR RECOGNITION?: I may already be a winner of the Publishers Clearing house Sweepstakes.

DO YOU SMOKE?: On the job no, on my breaks yes.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE DOING IN FIVE YEARS?: Living in the Bahamas with a fabulously wealthy dumb sexy blonde super model who thinks I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. Actually, I'd like to be doing that now.

DO YOU CERTIFY THAT THE ABOVE IS TRUE AND COMPLETE TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE?: Yes. Absolutely.

SIGN HERE: Aries.

TURNING POINT TO MY LIFE
I went to Mussoorie recently, for a youth camp, trekking and Yamuna River Water Rafting. But it changed my life, complete thought process..

I understood quite a few things there, which I would enlist here:

1. Difference b/w I and my body - My body is different from me. It's just a part of wider me. A healthy and beautiful body would make me(I) happy. If I exercise, it's my body, which takes a little pain to make me(I) happy. If I study on nights, it's my body that is taking a lil pain to make me(I) happy.

2. Difference b/w needs and desires -
To lead a happy life, following are essentially needed:
- a healthy body,
- a prosperous life-style,
- knowledge,
- love and trust relations within family / corporation and,
- respect by those around us.

Every human needs all these things all the time. Rest every-thing, more and more money, a trip to London, or biggest restaurants... are just desires.
Hence every-one must ensure to fulfil his needs and try to achieve his desires, whereas generally many of us do the opp, we just work to achieve our desires

3. Difference b/w knowledge and skills - Skills are just a subset of knowledge which is actually very vast. Much of this concept I could not understand. I could just understand the skill part of it, which is very easy to acquire, with some dedicated practise. Be it technical skills, dancing skills, swimming skills, writing skills, sales skills... Knowledge is a very vast concept as knowledge is about self, about humanity...

4. Difference b/w special and great - Many people want to be just different from everybody, just want to be special, but this desire to be different creates jealousy in them. Special and different people are never respected / accepted.
Great people always respect other great people and greatness can never be compared? Because if you compare great people, either wrong standards would be used, wrong results would yield.
This fact violates the preferential grading system of the Indian Education System.

5. Language is just a medium - This simply means that those speaking good English are not necessarily superior to those who r yet to learn English.
Those doing more of communication thru emails, are not necessarily superior to those who r yet to explore comps.
Those in the work of farming are no inferior to a businessman. Oh, it's just a profession.

6. Every action of every human is based on some logic. That logic might be right or wrong. That logic might not be logical. Egs of commonly accepted 'wrong' logics / assumptions:
- Assumption - 2 guys holding hands are gays
- Assumption - He who does not speak English is not civilized / intelligent..Fact - He can be the brightest guy around.
- Assumption - He, who has done MBA / Engineering is more educated than an M.A. Fact - The 2 can't be compared.
- Assumption - Anybody who has got good marks in 10th should take science.. Fact - Commerce / Arts also have good money. All bright people should not only be engineers / doctors.
- Assumption - He is from IIT, he has to be more intelligent than any other engineer. Fact - Bright people are all spread across the world and industries. IIT graduate does not mean more intelligent or so, it simply means that he worked hard and practised hard before the entrance exam, and cleared it. Anybody in his place who had realized the importance of entrance exam and worked that seriously and passionately, could have done it.
- Assumption - A person from IIT engg coll will perform better than a guy from some other engineering college. Fact - It just depends on who is ready to work hard now, and who has worked harder and gathered knowledge and skills during his college days.

The world is living on certain illogical assumptions, and we are just following them. I think, its time now, we start working on facts rather than assumptions..

JOINING IMT N
Hi!! Here is my first post into this blog. Now, first of all, the reason y I have started writing this blog... as I would be away from my family and friends. This would be one of the major means through which I would be communicating with everybody.. Oh!! Did I tell you that I am joining Business Management (MBA) Programme of IMT Nagpur.

Though initially I was a little confused about the decision.. because of heavy fees and the Indian education system, where students are taught to think in 1 way only.. the bookish way. But, considering the +ves of MBA..
1. I wish to understand the perspectives of various management gurus.. very important to develop my own managerial perspective.
2. I wish to understand, what is that cause / reason / passion, for which I can toil beyond limits without getting tired. I don't want to do a half-hearted job, just somehow manage my targets.. take my salary and curse the corporation / managers / colleagues around. I want much more than money.. I am yet searching for that more..
3. I wish to understand certain things like stock markets, investment fundas, all the hoopla about marketing.
4. Last but not the least, I really want to enjoy my life for next two years, have some fun..

But then comes the question.. Is 5 Lac and 2 years not too big an investment for this?
But I guess I don't have an answer to this question.. I have discussed with so many people.. troubled so many senior guys.. but to no decision.. So, I am just going with the wind..

But, hey I am not so disappointed. IMT Nagpur is known for having the best infrastructure in India.. So, I am excited about different sports - Basket ball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Swimming and monthly parties and ofcourse new friends at IMT.