A Case For Gender-Related Management Training

Today’s piece is a guest post by global talent management strategist and international executive search professional, Dorothy Dalton.  Dorothy is based in Brussels, but also works in the UK and Spain and is a Partner at Hansar Transition Services. She’s a certified coach and trainer with a focus on career transition and management, with a special interest in supporting organizations in the creation and development of the best possible talent pipelines.  She has written several interesting pieces about how gender differences impact workplace interactions on her blog, insights that she shares in this guest piece below.

Let’s stop being trapped by political correctness. Do men and women need different types of management training? I think so.

A number of spin off issues came from my recent research on bullying by women in the workplace – but several were particularly interesting.

Workplace Mars and Venus

One of them was that both men and women alike, shared the need for management and organizational training with a specifically gender related thread. A sort of Mars / Venus for work place skills. This wasn’t specifically just about sexual harassment, but basic communication, conflict resolution and managing expectations. This flies in the face of the common corporate gender-neutral, one-size-fits all management training that exists in most organizations today.

Many would view this as a backward step. But is it really?

Jane Gunn, the Corporate Peacemaker and author of the book “How to Beat Bedlam in the Boardroom and Boredom in the Bedroom”, suggests that “difference is the starting point for adding or creating value. What is needed most is to understand the value that each gender brings to the workplace and how each gender can learn from, rather than feel threatened by, the other”.

Differences are not negative. They’re just different.

Shouldn’t we just be acknowledging the existence of gender differences and recognize that we all need training on how to deal with them, rather than assuming as we do now, that we can all slip into business (gender) neutral on our own. Or worse, assume that the traditional training methods found most successfully in male dominated environments work one hundred percent across the board, when all evidence indicates to the contrary. This is amusingly and somewhat extremely illustrated by a bemused Professor Higgins in the song “Hymn to Him“, when gender differences were clearly incomprehensible and unhappily negative!

Historical perspective

It would seem from the people who contacted me at least, that there are indeed issues in all gender combinations in the work place, except almost predictably, in male dominated environments (men managing and being managed by men). This actually shouldn’t surprise me. Men have had centuries of experience. Outside a domestic situation, all male teams and organizations were historically and culturally the norm: military, sports, male clubs, politics, etc. where clearly defined structured hierarchies were in place and communication lines were usually prescribed and evident.

In a historical perspective, it was only comparatively recently that women have either been included or allowed full access to most business environments. So it’s hardly surprising that no one is used to dealing with women in these situations. And as they join the corporate world in ever increasing numbers, equally women are not used to dealing with each other either! There simply is very little historical precedent to call upon. In brief, men and women lack practice in dealing with each other at work which is intensified as women climb the career ladder and assume positions of responsibility.

Daily experiences

We all see and experience small signs every day on a minor level of gender miscommunication. Happily those times have changed, but miscommunication can be equally baffling today and cumulatively contribute to poor workplace dynamics. Men and women alike berate each other for many mismanagement situations which seem to have an underlying gender issue.

Both men and women enter the workplace with their academic and professional qualifications and experience, but also with engrained behaviour patterns and expectations derived from their separate chromosomes, personality types and relationship role models developed in lives and interaction outside a work situation.

Many women claimed that men needed special training relating to them in a business neutral way, believing that men are used to dealing with women as mothers, sisters, partners, daughters and less often as business peers and even less frequently as superiors. But conversely the same was said by the men about women! Jane Gunn also amplifies: “Almost every instance of conflict or dispute at work is the catalyst for, or is mirrored by, conflict at home. In the same way relationships at home have a dramatic impact on our ability to create a productive and harmonious work life“.

Other differences

Recognizing differences is no longer pejorative and doesn’t mean unequal treatment as it once did. Much is written about dealing with other types of differences in an organizational setting: cross cultural, personality (extrovert vs. introvert) high achievers for example. So why is it now de rigueur, or worse still, politically incorrect, to suggest that gender differences require special attention in an organizational context?

Blurred expectations

So when I think about it, it’s almost to be expected that there should be some blurring of both expectations and behaviour within organizations. Perhaps the real surprise should be that any of it comes right at all, given this real lack of experience in the overall scheme of things.

Real issues

The real issue is perhaps how do we all let go our socialized gender stereotypical behaviour and communicate in a business neutral way when we enter organizational life, when they can be so removed for many from the roles we play in other areas of our daily lives? The answer seems to be with difficulty. Every indication would also suggest that support in coping with this dichotomy would be useful.

Challenges

Ashanti A., Change Manager in the Hi-Tech sector in Los Angeles, shared one basic conundrum facing both men and women:  “As a female manager the biggest challenge in managing men is gaining the same respect and willingness to be a direct report that would be given to a male manager. As basic as it sounds- by nature no man wants to be told what to do by a woman”

Susan J., an Investment Analyst three years into her career in London, threw in this old chestnut: women very often lack basic effective supervisory skills and go from one extreme to another, either mimicking male behaviour or being too soft”.

Ashanti also suggests that women need to be mindful not to fall into the “subordinate female co- worker role”.  So women instinctively pour coffee, arrange parties, bring cakes and fall into a “career/facilitator/placater” role.  Ashanti elaborates:  “Oftentimes because these statements aren’t aggressive or sexual in nature, they’re not deemed offensive or inappropriate- yet I would argue the latter”.

So how do we get down to these basics? As women enter organizational life in greater numbers than ever before, a review of current training practices seems to be the only solution.

What do you think?

7 comments on “A Case For Gender-Related Management Training

  1. How refreshing to read this post. Louise brilliantly commented as well. I've been behind the idea for several years that we also need to, in some cases, have gender-separated schools, especially for the gifted and talented. There is evidence to support such a design, but on a gut level it makes sense that the focus of schools should be to groom our students to be the best they can be. Without the distractions of gender competition and discrimination, girls fair far better in courses in the maths and sciences in all girls classes. So, gendered management training would seem a very logical continuation of that theory.

    When women and men are allowed to be themselves they complement each other better. Grooming as individuals, and women as women, men as men, would in essence stimulate great creativity and better problem solving. It shouldn't be a one size fits all. In education that idea has caused creativity to drop dramatically since 1990 in the U.S. and we're starting to see the devastating results – a workforce that can't write and perform basic math, unprepared, and beginning to fall behind the global competition. Vygotsky, one of the great educational theorist, supported individual learning plans back in 1925. Perhaps, gendered management training could influence education back to what we already know works – we are all individuals, gender and all.

  2. Hi Dorothy & Tanveer,

    What a juicy post!! Where do I start?

    To your first point, I think the “backlash” to your general question is understandable. After such a long hard climb into the ranks of management, many women do not want to be singled out again as different from their male peers. And some men, in my experience, are still resentful (and scared) about what the ascent of women in business means for them.
    Given the latest info (and I just tweeted a link on this today) that women are now the majority of employees in the American workforce, this will be a very interesting conversation.
    I think that the issue is really about two things – power, what we understand about it – and how we use it. Second, it is about emotions. There is ample evidence that male and female brains process information (including emotional) differently. The whole Venus?Mars thing hasn’t really advanced that understanding much. In some cases, it has just been polarizing.
    What we really all need is greater conflict competency – the skill and ability to understand and communicate about differences, in general, with more care and respect.
    It is an illusion that the workplace is gender or culturally neutral. Differences are the lifeblood of innovation and creativity – unfortunately too few of us are really good at harnessing their value.
    Great post – I’ll be tweeting it and inviting others to join in this conversation.
    Best,
    Louise

  3. Hi Ladies – excellent comments and food for thought! Where to start! Such a broad topic. I used the term Mars/Venus for the workplace because it is so well known as shorthand for gender miscommunication.

    I firmly believe that men and women have the same potential, but have different styles as well as challenges. I don’t think recognising these differences is perjorative, but necessry.

    One of the sub topics that came from my bullying series was that women are flooding into the work place in increasing numbers ( 60% European graduates are women, 65% US graudates) but without the skills to reach their potential in those arenas specifically constructive and assertive communication, as well as conflict management. Women more likely to be bullied by another woman than a man, they step up to negotiating tables less than men. Women are criticised if they mimic male behaviour and criticised when they don’t. I could go on. I had literally hundreds of messages expressing concern or complaining about gender related issues in the workplace.

    I genuinely believe that recognising gender differences with training or coaching for men and women alike on how to deal with these issues will be a key factor in achieving more successful corporate environments in the future. Might help personal relationships and as Angie says filter through to schools too!

  4. What a juicy, thought provoking post, Dorothy.

    In my training and speaking, I talk to women about becoming "bicultural."

    There are definitely differences, as we all know, between "pink culture" and "blue culture."

    Many of these stem from childhood and early socialization, and many from the traditions in workplaces that for the most part (until recently), were created by men.

    I think it's critical that there is training for women that includes such things as risk taking, conflict resolution, negotiating skills, and power communication.

    When I speak to women audiences, they are hungry for this information.

    And a quick generational note….

    I really thought, that since lots of Generation Y women grew up playing sports on teams just like the boys, that they would come into the workplace with many of the skills that men developed growing up on those teams.

    I'm not finding that to be the case. I'm finding that they benefit from this kind of training as well.

    Thanks for this wonderful post, Dorothy and Tanveer!

  5. Hi Ava – that indeed would be the ideal world were both men and women were "bi-cultural" – great phrase. To your super list of risk taking, conflict resolution, negotiating skills, and power communication I would add boundary setting. Women tend to absorb until they "flood" to use a John Grey word.

    I would agree totally with you ref Gen Y – sometimes I feel that some things have not changed at all in 30 + years.

    Thanks for insightful input.

    1. To my knowledge, I don't know of any and I would suspect that it's in fact an untapped market as few businesses realize the need for such training. Hopefully, articles like Dorothy's will help shed some more light on this.

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