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 Sue Shellenbarger of Wall
Street Journal.com reviews LEADERSHIP AND THE SEXES.
LEADERSHIP
AND THE SEXES: USING GENDER SCIENCE TO CREATE SUCCESS IN BUSINESS - Michael
Gurian with Barbara Annis. Jossey-Bass, $27.95 (272p) ISBN
978-0-7879-9703-8. To learn more about the book click
here.
Mars,
Venus at the Office
Sue Shellenbarger, Wall Street Journal.com, September 2, 2008, 12:46 pm
That
male bosses are from Mars and female bosses are from Venus is the root
of much pain and suffering in corporate life. Now comes a book that
says training managers to apply new discoveries in brain science can
defuse those tensions once and for all.
The premise of
“Leadership and the Sexes” by Michael Gurian and Barbara Annis is that
men and women would work a lot more smoothly together, and turn out
more work, if they understood differences in the way their brains work.
For example:
Men try to compete while women try to bond.
Women tend to process emotion verbally while men cut quickly to act ion items.
Men tend to zone out or become overwhelmed by lots of verbiage, while women’s brains don’t shut off except during sleep.
Mr.
Gurian is an oft-published expert on gender issues, with bestselling
books such as “The Wonder of Boys” to his credit. Ms. Annis is a
longtime consultant on gender issues at work. They’re not advocating
stereotyping, but rather an opening of the mind to general tendencies
for the sexes to differ in these ways. As subtle as they may seem,
these differences have major implications for productivity.
In
one case, a female manager might give a performance review to a male
employee who completed nine great projects and badly botched the tenth.
Based on her desire to fortify relationships, the boss might start by
asking about his family, trying to show she cares about him. But he
squirms, wishing she’d cut to the results and tell him where he stands
in the competitive hierarchy. The bottom line: This employee would
respect the boss more, and probably be motivated to work harder, if
she’d get to the point.
On the other hand, a male manager might
review the performance of a female employee who also completed nine
great projects and blew the tenth. He starts by asking bluntly what
happened on the tenth project. Crushed, she concludes she isn’t valued
by him or the company, and fails to hear much of what he says after
that. The bottom line: This manager would retain this woman longer and
get better results from her if he understood the power, for her, of a
little encouragement.
Companies that “get it” and train their
managers in these subtleties, the authors say, are reaping rewards in
the form of improved productivity and retention of women. They cite as
examples IBM, Proctor & Gamble, Deloitte & Touche and
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, among others.
What’s been your
experience in dealing with bosses or subordinates of the opposite sex?
Would a little understanding of brain science have helped y ou in any
situations? Would you agree or disagree with the premise that male
bosses are from Mars and female bosses are from Venus? — Sue
Shellenbarger --------
Michael
Gurian and Barbara Annis are the authors of "Leadership
and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business,"
published by Jossey-Bass/John Wiley, September 2008. For more
information, visit www.genderleadership.com.
This website features the
Leadership and Gender trainings offered by Michael Gurian and his
associates. We are proud to offer the finest state-of-the-art
training and keynotes in
how men and women think, work and lead. New York Times
bestselling author Michael Gurian is one of the world's foremost
authorities in leadership and gender diversity. Working
together as women and men is one of the greatest challenges we will
each
meet--personally and in corporate environments. If the Gurian
Institute can help your workplace meet the challenge, please contact
us. If you specifically want Michael Gurian to provide
consulting, training or a keynote, please let us know as well. Click
here to learn more.
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