Time For A Timely Topic

The media attention given to Annika Sorenstam, a recent article in BusinessWeek called "The New Gender Gap" and a book called, "The First Sex," have all brought to mind an age-old concept: the differences between men and women.

While there are differences, I want to eradicate a mythology about business management: that men and women have to be managed differently. For that matter, we can throw out the other prejudices as well regarding African-Americans, Hispanics, accountants, administrative assistants, top executives, young people, older people and any other grouping where people get managed a certain way because they fall into a specific grouping.

Here are a few premises:

• People run businesses.
• People are unique individuals. Stereotypes about groups do NOT apply to every one in the group.
• To be an effective manager, you need to focus on the individual's characteristics, not the group they fall into.

Here are some of the ludicrous stereotypes I've heard over the years:

• Women do not see the big picture. They are better at executing tactics.
• Men are competitive and incapable of nourishing another person's growth.
• African-Americans only get top executive positions for diversity reasons, not because of their talent.
• Men work in silos, women work in teams.
• Men look at every situation as a competition, women look at them as opportunities for collaboration.
• Women are better communicators while men are better at making the tough decisions.
• Women are better as managers because of their natural tendency to nurture others.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Every one of these statements is ludicrous because they label individuals regardless of their true talents and styles and personalities. Currently, I'm working with groups in nine different organizations. Some have two men at the top, some have two women, some have a man reporting to a woman and some have a woman reporting to a man. Over the past eight years, I've provided presentations to more than 12,000 people, including some senior citizen groups, some high school groups, some not-for-profit groups and mostly corporate groups. I've provided over 700 executive coaching sessions to men, women, Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, people in their late twenties and early thirties, people in their fifties, and employees from every department and function in a business. All of these people were director level or above.

In the midst of all this real-life research, I have never once seen a stereotype that applied to every person in a given group. Managing by stereotype is a massive mistake. You cannot and do not know a person because of their label.

Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of assuming a person will respond a certain way or has certain strengths just because they have a particular label. Instead look for their strengths, understand their desires and personalities and values, and provide them with opportunities that leverage these characteristics.

In other words, treat all people with respect, which includes respecting them enough to get to know them before you start sticking all kinds of labels on them about what they are or are not capable of doing.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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