I was recently asked to participate in a workshop on Leadership and Gender. The whole seminar was filmed by RTL Extra, who created a 15 minute film which will hopefully be broadcasted in the coming weeks.
Personally, I haven’t been bothered really much with the topic and I entered the seminar quite skeptical. However, talking to some of the participants I realised that I have a quite idealistic view, and that in reality there are definitely people that keep encountering challenges that can be related back to gender specific issues. So it made me think. What is so different for me? Does it maybe have to do something with the field I am working in?
So here are two of my personal learnings:
- Women and men do speak a different language .
Real rocket science, right? But indeed, there are cases where it is clear that the different genders listen with “a different ear”. Now you might think that women would listen more on the interpersonal level. But surprisingly enough, especially at the beginning of business meetings, women tend to focus on the goal only while men often have to settle the hierarchy first. Most women simply don’t get distracted with settling the positions, or in other words, don’t play the same game. Might be a real mistake when you come to think of it! - Women are reluctant to get into a fight.
In meetings where people are becoming emotional, many women would focus on the complaining, sad, talkative or disturbing person in order level them out and try to keep the good atmosphere. However, as a female CEO told me last week, business meetings are not about making friends. Some of the best people are really hard to work with! To get the best results, it is extremely important to share and actively discuss different opinions. Especially creative solutions need challenging!
But probably the most important thing I learnt was a confirmation that design, creativity and innovation need differences! And we just need to manage them well. Design requires a multitude of perspectives, disciplines, different cultures, different backgrounds and different genders!
So embrace these differences and listen with those different ears we have, just make sure you play the same game. And last but not least, don’t worry about making everyone happy, create those creative fights!
