Leadership Magazine: Women in business, authenticity through balance

August 2016 edition: I recently attended an interesting information sharing session about community upliftment programmes and the priority areas different organisations focussed on.  The facilitator of the session mentioned something incredibly important that stuck with me; it’s all good and well that there are so many social projects helping girls and young women, and everyone knows we need these projects. However, the question is what will happen to the boys and young men in the long term if they aren’t also equally prioritised?

The important lesson here is that there needs to be balance in everything. If you are going to be focussing too much on one area, then inevitably another area is going to be neglected. This is also so true for when you invest and build your organisation’s reputation.

With it being Women’s Month, there is a lot of focus on women and their role in the workplace. However, when it comes to building reputations, it is something which both men and women contribute to, positively or negatively.  

It’s important to keep things real in the workplace, regardless of your gender. The truth is, a reputation is built on authenticity.

Stereotyping stereotypes: It’s unfortunate that in this day and age, and depending on the industry, some women do still feel that they need to think and behave in a certain way to move up the corporate ladder. But by doing so, they ignore their true feminine selves and often downplay feminine traits, which also have a key place in the business.

There is this terrible catch 22 situation: women who display typical male traits (like assertiveness, independence and competitiveness) are considered bossy, cold and aggressive, while their male counterparts are respected for these traits (which, interestingly, are also generally accepted leadership traits).

Conversely, women who display typical female traits like compassion, inclusiveness and warmth, are often overlooked as leaders, while men in business who are warm and empathetic are lauded for these characteristics.

It reminds me of an interesting experiment that was conducted by Stanford Graduate Business School professor Frank Flynn, who tested perceptions of gender with his class. He adapted a case study about an entrepreneur named Heidi Roizen. Half his class was given the original case study, while the case study given to the other half was simply tweaked so that the name of the subject was Howard Roizen. Professor Flynn asked his students to rate their impressions of Heidi/Howard, with fascinating results. Howard was generally very well perceived by the students, while Heidi was considered aggressive, selfish and unlikeable; many students said they wouldn’t hire her or work for her.

Everyone has something to bring to the table:  For me, the case study above raises the question of female authenticity in the workplace; how do we remain true to ourselves as women, while at the same time being persuasive and powerful leaders? I do realise that the best way to succeed is not to try and do it on your own, or try to be someone that you are not; it’s about working together as a team and leveraging off each other’s strengths. Regardless of your gender, race or creed; you will have core skills, behaviours and attributes that make you unique, and that will complement the skills, behaviours and attributes of your colleagues. It’s all about seeing how best to make it work together.

Embrace your own strengths: As women, we need to embrace our own strengths and recognise that the different genders bring very different attributes, both positive and negative, to the workplace. These differences need to be honoured and leveraged for the overall success of the business. We should not try to emulate what we are not.

Ultimately it’s all about balance: As mentioned earlier, when it comes to building a reputation, it’s all about balance. Too much focus on one area will cause you to neglect another key area, which will impact the overall perception and resultant reputation of your business. Strong teams know how to utilise their members’ strongest and best qualities to the benefit of the entire team. Reputation is built on a solid foundation and this can only be achieved if all the building blocks are in place and everyone works together in harmony.

To continue the reputation management conversation, join Regine on Twitter @ReputationIsKey or Facebook www.facebook.com/yourreputationmatters.