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What really is the difference of women and men in business?
I wonder if it is collaboration as opposed to competition. Although both in extremes can lead to problems, collaboration offers the initial advantage.
With a recent reorganization in my own business, I watched first-hand the difference in women working together as opposed to the individual approach men typically take. I am so impressed at how two intelligent women made short work of a challenging situation and set up the foundation for success.
In our business, we are changing how we work in one component. We could have divided the activity between two people and they could have worked independently, earning separate commissions and using competition as motivation. This would have been the traditional route used in almost all organizations.
But two women who work with me - two very smart and capable women - brought a different solution. Rather than divide the work, they proposed to work together as a team, sharing the activity and the reward. Rather than be competitive, they decided that working collaboratively would provide better overall results and more rewards than working independently. They each have different strengths and would use them together for leverage. They worked out all the possible areas of contention up front and came to ways to deal with them and set sail.
Zounds, I say! What a brilliant solution it was, and I dare say two men would probably not have reached the same conclusion. I have the greatest confidence in their success.
Interesting - studies have consistently shown that men are much more competitive in the workplace than women. With the increased complexity of business in all areas, the traditional "carrot of competition" for the prize may no longer be the winning model. Maybe we need to look at working collaboratively to get better results in many formerly independent positions: sales, professional positions, and leadership. After all, two heads are better than one. Research also shows that women are more likely to collaborate than men - but we can learn.
I think as leaders we need to get out of the box and look at "jobs" differently. Let's see jobs as activities and be innovative in terms of how to best achieve success in those activities.
Two women working together - very smart.
Just my opinion …
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