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feelings about tradition“I don’t consider your blog a business blog,”  he said.

“Why not?” she inquired.

“Because you write about behaviors, relationships, feelings, and understanding yourself. Those aren’t business topics,” he explained.

Goodness!

Yet most insightful!

And how true, given how men and women approach the world from different perspective. 

These differences are thoughtfully explored in The Female Vision by Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnson.

Their book opens with a story describing how Jim and Jill respond to a meeting in which the sales reps receive information about new sales quotas:

  • Jim goes right into action, assessing how the targets can be met.
  • Jill shares her observation that a key team member appeared disconnected, even depressed, by the topic.  She’s concerned by his reaction since his support is vital to meeting the new targets.
  • Jim thinks Jill’s comment is irrelevant. Jill senses his disinterest and backs off.

Dr. Mary O’Malley, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who works with executive women, notes “women often have difficulty defending the value of what they see in part because the traditional workplace is not necessarily structured to recognize subjective observation.”

In both my corporate career and current entrepreneurial role, I’ve seen many business situations and/or business careers go awry because feelings weren’t factored in or due to a supreme lack of EQ (with both men and women being the culprits).

I’m betting you’ve seen it, too.

It takes two to tango: logic and emotion, quantitative and qualitative, masculine and feminine power, head and heart, subjective and objective, chocolate and peanut butter.

So, I’ll continue to write (and teach and coach and speak) about relationships, behaviors and self-awareness…and maybe, some day, the traditional workplace will have become a little non-traditional.

What’s your view on the place feelings have in leadership?

Image source before quote:  morgueFile.com