Business Networking and Sex - Ivan Misner [27]
GOOD FACTS FOR MEN TO KNOW
Consider this recent poll, courtesy of the Catalyst 2010 Census (www.catalyst.org), a research organization focusing on women in business:
Percentage of women in the U.S. labor force: 46.3%
Percentage of female Fortune 500 corporate officers: 15.4%
Percentage of female Fortune 500 top earners: 6.7%
Percentage of female Fortune 500 CEOs: 2.4%
Number of female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies: 12
Number of female CEOs in Fortune 501–1000 companies: 10
Total female CEOs in Fortune 1000 companies: 22
Women-owned U.S. employer firms: 910,761
Women employed: 7.6 million
Female payroll earned: $217.6 billion
Do you feel intimidated yet, men? If we want to continue to compete and thrive, we have to invest in relationships. This means we have to learn how women think. It may not be easy, but it is our mission. Consider this thought from one of our respondents:
I am one of only four men in a women-focused business group of about 100 members. I’ve found that because I am one of the few men, when I speak, the others will pay extra attention to what I say. But this only works if I keep my comments and thoughts to a minimum. If I start to dominate the conversation, the tone or attitude changes fairly quickly.
Being associated with a women’s business group can be very effective, but only if you’re willing to take a nondominan approach and are comfortable letting the women completely control the environment.
Some of you men may be thinking that you already know how to get along and work well with women. Really? Do you think so? When women have a choice to hire or professionally partner with a man or a woman, all other things being equal, they’ll usually choose a woman; unless there is a strategic reason not to. They do this not just because of her gender, rather, because they feel more of a connection with female counterparts because of their shared relationship-building skills. It’s probably being done subconsciously, but, rest assured, it is a strong tendency that we have all seen happen a lot.
It may sound like I’m saying we can’t compete with women because we don’t have the right equipment, mindset, or cultural insight into life as a woman. That’s not what I’m saying at all. If that were true, then this book would be pointless, and it’s just the opposite. This book is a tool to give you the advantage of understanding so that you absolutely can compete.
Most women don’t have a problem doing business with men, unless the guy in question is just a great big jerk. Normally they don’t choose men as their business counterparts because they don’t share that communication connection the way they do with other women. This can be overcome. We just need to learn to master the subject matter, the way we’d do with any other challenge.
What about women learning to communicate and work better with men? Isn’t that important? After all, we men are still the rulers of the world, aren’t we? (Please don’t tell my wife I said that, nor any of my female employees.) Of course, this is just as important. Women need to understand the male mindset beyond the hackneyed sports, beer, sex, and toys stereotype. I know a lot of you women reading this just wondered if there really is more to men than sports, beer, sex, and toys. Contrary to popular belief, we are a little more complex than that, and actually pretty intelligent. OK, not always, but at least about stuff that doesn’t have to do with sports, beer, sex, and toys.
Stay tuned to look at the male and female psyche and self-perceptions and how they factor into business relationships and transactions.
How Else Are We Different?
In friendship, men bond by doing, not talking. When men get together their purpose is to hunt, fish, work around the house, build, run, bike, swim, play poker, bowl, or anything else that is not talking about stuff. This process of growing friendships through being in motion together begins in early childhood. In elementary school, boys played army, tag, monsters, and superheroes.