Venus and Mars at Work
工作中的男人和女人就象金星和火星

Workplace expert Lisa Earle McLeod, author of "Forget Perfect," learned long ago that men and women share some differences in the workplace. Now, she addresses one of these differences the moment she begins a presentation.

“When I do seminars for men, especially middle management men, I have to spend a good hour or two validating what they’ve done so far before they start to learn,” she says. Men, McLeod says, take new information as an affront to their intelligence and become defensive. Women, by contrast, start to learn right away.

According to the AFL-CIO, women are paid 76 cents for every dollar a man earns. Are workplace gender differences to blame for the U.S. wage gap or contributing to the glass ceiling?

No, many experts say. But they can hinder effective communication in the workplace.

The contacts that count

Although women are generally good at building rapport, they don’t always build the right types of relationships, says Rebecca Shambaugh, founder of Women in Leadership and Learning (WILL), a women’s executive leadership development program.

Can I ask you a question?

Lisa Earle McLeod recalls a female sales rep who was sure she was about to be fired. Her boss, a man, had been silent around her lately and seemed completely uninterested in what she was doing. Just as she was bracing herself for the axe, she was promoted instead.

If you don’t mind...

"Women use all kinds of ways of telling people what to do without giving a direct order, Deborah Tannen said in a presentation based on her book, “You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.” “A woman might say, 'I would do it this way' or 'Is there any way you can get that done today, so we can send it out tomorrow?'"

The bottom line

Men and women may communicate differently, but these differences don’t spell disaster in the workplace, says Lynda Ford, a human resources expert and author of “Transform Your Workplace” (McGraw-Hill).