The WINNER Team: Leader Meets Woman - How to Unlock the True Potential of Your Female Employees!

The WINNER Team: Male Leader Meets Woman - How to Unlock the True Potential of Your Female Employees!

  Studies - such as the McKinsey study "Women matter" - have shown that companies that culturally embrace gender diversity produce better results. However, few leaders succeed in fully unlocking the potential of female employees. This mainly affects male supervisors, but many female leaders, after years in executive positions, have also adopted more masculine behaviors. Here are some tips on how to better and more effectively interact with the Evas in your team, whether you are a male leader or a long-time female leader. However, these tips only apply to the classic Evas and not to the disruptive Evas who have already transformed into half-men thanks to numerous trainings and books: Tip 1: Give Her Attention! As a man, you often unconsciously exclude women and prefer to communicate with men. Make sure to give the women in your team at least the same amount of attention. Relationship-oriented women immediately sense this unconscious exclusion, which can seriously disrupt the employee-supervisor relationship. Tip 2: Ask About Family! Women often require a different type of leadership with a clear relational level. This includes asking about their well-being or personal life (e.g. how their weekend was, how their family is doing). However, be cautious, as there are types of women who are confrontational and may perceive such questions as close to sexual harassment. Tip 3: Inform Them! Statements on a purely factual level such as "Please prepare a sales report for 2015" without further context may be perceived as abrupt and distant by the women in your team. Providing a bit of context beforehand will bring them the necessary clarity and motivation. For example: "As a team, we need to present our results for 2015 to secure funding for 2016. Therefore, it is important for you to prepare a sales report for 2015." Tip 4: Catch Her Doing Good! Offer her a lot of positive feedback not only on the results but also on her behavior that led to the results. It is no secret that positive feedback is much more effective and motivating than constant criticism. A statement like "Despite challenging conditions, you managed to keep your team together and motivated under pressure, achieving great results," will push the self-critical Eva to excel. Tip 5: Work on the Relationship! Before giving critical feedback, include something relationship-preserving. Instead of saying, "I don't want to see these emotions anymore," you could say, "Your emotions help you make the right decision in many situations; however, in this particular situation, you should find other ways to address your concerns in order to maintain the loyalty of important project partners." If women start to think they are wrong as a person, they tend to hold back. Tip 6: Bring out the Woman in Her! Due to your solution-oriented approach, as a man, you tend to explain to others (including female employees) how to do things. Let them find their own way, so they don't have to become half-men. Instead of saying, "You need to be assertive here," you could say, "It is important to resolve this conflict immediately. You will surely find a way to ensure that the team pulls together from now on." Tip 7: Appoint Her as the Leader! If as a supervisor you believe a woman in your team is suitable for a project or position, appoint her instead of asking her if she feels qualified. As a self-critical person who has never learned to boast and as a relationship-oriented person who does not want to disappoint anyone, she is more likely to present doubts to you rather than positive evidence. And then you will inevitably choose the male competitor who has simply marketed himself better. Tip 8: Let Her Shine in Meetings! Ensure that your female employees shine in meetings and contribute their proposed solutions by asking them open questions early on, such as "What is your opinion on this?" or by establishing clear meeting rules where everyone gets an equal chance to speak. This way, you make sure not to let valuable ideas go to waste just because women often do not speak up immediately but prefer to listen first. Tip 9: Use Her Early Warning System! If she says, "I see a conflict coming, it doesn't feel right," do not dismiss this as alarmism. Instead, ask, "What makes you feel that way?" or "What were the specific signals that led you to this feeling?" She often perceives things that you do not, so make use of this potential. Tip 10: Learn to Love Questions! Do not interpret her questions as ignorance or stupidity, nor as interrogative questions meant to test you. Neither is the case; she wants to gather information and integrate viewpoints. Occasionally step out of your problem-solving mode and engage in her question-and-answer game. This way, you will have more information and can often find better solutions to conflicts or problems.   For more information about our Top-100 speaker Katrin Seifarth and the topic "Male Leader Meets Woman," click HERE: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/redner/katrin-seifarth-nachhaltigkeitzielgruppemoderationpraesentationstrainingmarketingkommunikations.html