I Just Need to Be Heard at the (Boardroom) Table

The core take-aways covered in my “Picking Up” program are designed to provide structured foundational skills to exactly track along the lines of the problems women face when moving up the ladder.

The first problem is that women feel they’re not heard.  The solution? An age-old, somewhat tired term with often over-simplified explanations:  Effective Communication.

Before you yawn and say you’ve heard this before, I promise you’ve never heard it this way.

While others bemoan how things should be, I’m in the reality business. I start from the point of where things are, no matter how inconvenient, uncomfortable or unpopular.

And the current reality is that the language of business is male. We don’t have to like it. But we do have to use it as our point of departure.

This is important to accept because men and women have very different communication styles — our brains are wired differently.

In my work, I help women become better able to decode the differences.  Only then, will they be able to leverage the different styles for competitive advantage. You can probably bet your bottom dollar that men aren’t trying as hard to understand the language of women. And in fact, men often find our style — our mode — uncomfortable, inscrutable and basically just too probing.

There, of course, lies the rub.  Especially when 83% of those “at the helm” — making advancement decisions —  are men.

So, women professionals, here’s my challenge:  Make it your mission to become aware of verbal and non-verbal communications.  Study the really profound differences in how men and women communicate.  And then, create a plan for enhancing your own communication style.

Real Results. Real Time. Real Work. dtkResources.

• why the current efforts thrown at increasing the number of women leaders aren’t working
• the three problems women professionals encounter when moving up the ladder