Mike Carruthers:
Men and women
often have problems communicating with each other in the workplace.
Gail Evans:
Nobody’s wrong. What we are is different. And we need to come
to understand each other’s games.
Gail
Evans, author of the book, Play
Like a Man, Win Like a Woman...
We hear
simple words like “yes” and “no” differently. And it’s how we
were taught when we were growing up.
Boys
learn very early on, that no means practically nothing. That
all you just keep doing when somebody says no is try new ways
to get them to say yes.
Girls
are brought up hearing, “no means no.” And they believe it.
So when a woman hears no in a meeting, she believes it. When
a woman says to a man in a business context, “No, we’re not
doing that.” She can’t understand why he comes back 20 times.
Gail says
it’s important for everyone in business to toot their own horn.
I
hear women all the time tell me, “somebody stole my work. They
didn’t put my name on the presentation, they didn’t say how
much work I did.” And I say, “It’s your job to make sure everybody
knows you did it.” And they say, “well I can’t boast and brag
like these guys down the hall.”
Well
little boys, they had to constantly tell the coach they could
do it they could do it, “put me in.” That was how you got in.
Little
girls were taught just the opposite. You’re supposed to be sweet
and nice. Little girls are very unpopular when they boast or
brag about anything. What girls are taught is, “say I can’t
do it.” Women have to learn how to become their own PR agents.
At
SomethingYouShouldKnow.net, I’m Mike Carruthers, and
that’s Something You Should Know. |
