May 2007
Art of Networking |
Are Women Better Networkers than Men?
Observations about how your gender influences your networking strategy.
This article is a summary of an address presented to BNI Sydney Inner West (Australia) at their inaugural International Networking Day event on February 6, 2007.
The way of doing business has changed dramatically in the past ten years. No longer are we operating in a predominately male workspace, using the traditional male style of direct communication. So what impact has the influx of women had on using networking to build business, and are they doing it better than their male colleagues?
In doing the research for my book Gender Games: Doing Business with the Opposite Sex, I found that, as it pertains to communication, men typically focus on information, while women typically focus on relationships. The most popular tool for measuring individual style and preferences, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, distinguishes between "thinking" and "feeling" styles of making decisions and communicating. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of all men who complete the profile score highly as "thinkers," while two-thirds of the women rate highest as "feelers."
Well-known linguist and pioneer of male/female communication style differences, Deborah Tannen, proposes that, generally speaking, men use language to preserve their independence and maintain their position in the group, while women use language to create connection and intimacy. There seems to be a theme here! (And yes, we are generalizing; there are always exceptions to the rule.)
Let's be a fly on the wall at a typical networking event. What are differences in behavior as you move from group to group? An all-male group is likely talking business or sports, with most members of the group competing to demonstrate their status and knowledge. Rarely, personal information is exchanged or vulnerability is shown.
In contrast, an all-female group is likely to be having a personal conversation. While they may also be talking business, it will be from the perspective of sharing information, offering assistance, and talking about mistakes they have made so that the others can benefit from their experience.
What Is Your Networking Strength?
One key way networking has changed is that it is now seen as a method to create strategic alliances rather than as a means of selling your products or services. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter identifies three types of networks: operational, personal, and strategic. It proposes that effective leaders learn to develop and employ all these networks for strategic purposes.
According to Ibarra and Hunter, the operational network helps you manage your internal responsibilities and build strong working relationships with people who enable you to do your job; your personal network enables you to build contacts outside your organization for referrals, information, and often coaching and mentoring support; and, strategic networks are for creating leverage and links—the ability to marshal information, support, and resources from one sector of a network to achieve results in another.
So which communication style would be the most effective in developing operational and personal networks, and creating strategic alliances?
That's where the conundrum occurs! Research clearly shows that business today is about relationships, specifically, making and maintaining contacts. And women, who are predominately relationship-focused, are naturally exceptional at that. So when it comes to building good networks in their operational and personal spheres, women are usually stronger than men. However, men seem better at using contacts and connections to build strategic alliances and asking for business.
When I surveyed 1,200 businesswomen on what they felt was the major thing holding them back in business today, 38% said "lack of self promotion." Yet research consistently confirms that men are far more confident than women in promoting their abilities. In fact, they tend to oversell themselves, while women tend to undersell themselves.
So could it be argued that women tend to excel at networking that demands building relationships and making connections? And are men arguably still leading the charge on networking that generates successful strategic alliances? That's how I see it—what have you observed?
Candy Tymson is an expert in communication and gender differences with a Master's Degree in Human Resource Management and Coaching. Based in Sydney, she is a professional speaker and facilitator and the author of Gender Games: Doing Business with the Opposite Sex.
For information on her workshops, presentations and products:
Phone: 02 9976 6777
Fax: 02 9976 6788
Email: candy@tymson.com.au
Website: www.tymson.com.au
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So, tell us what you think! Do men and women approach networking differently?
You are invited to participate in an innovative on-line survey to study this fascinating idea. This short survey will only take a few minutes of your time. The findings will be used as the basis for a book on gender and networking that will be developed in the near future. Your honest opinions and comments are greatly appreciated and will be kept completely confidential.
Click here to take the survey now.
