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.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

Accelerate Update This section is always current to the current month

I suppose every book changes an author's life to a certain degree. My first book, which was self-published in 1995, was called Inside Out: A Catalyst for Conscious Living. It's out of print now for a number of good reasons. The layout, which yours truly did, looks like something a first grader could do today. And the ideas are very theoretical, which doesn't fit my approach anymore. However, I read the book a few months ago, and I was pleased by how clearly I had explained my early thoughts on improving performance.

My second book, Corporate Catalysts: How to Make Your Company More Successful, Whatever Your Title, Income, or Authority was published in 2005 by Career Press. That book was a step forward in clarifying my ideas on improving performance and understanding how to write a whole book. It's one thing to dream about getting a book contract and another thing to write a 70,000 word manuscript.

My third book, ACCELERATE: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Momentum, which was published in May 2007 by Kaplan Publishing, has changed my business dramatically. Up until that book was published, I mostly did projects for four companies: McDonald's, Marriott, GSD&M, and Toyota. In the past 12 months, I've worked with business owners, executives, and managers within dozens of small, medium, and massive organizations in more than 20 industries ranging from boats to banks to software to financial services to trucking to lighting to home healthcare to hospitals to optometrists. It's been an exciting adventure.

If you want to see my speaking calendar for 2008, which we'll try to update every two weeks, please click here.

Currently, I have 66 speeches scheduled for 2008. If you would like for me to speak at one of your events in 2008 or 2009, feel free to contact me at dan@thecoughlincompany.com and I will be glad to see if we can make it work.

If you want to see my speaking topics and a video of footage from some of my keynote speeches, please click here.

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