Click “Play” to watch a brief video featuring Kit Welchlin from this presentation:
Men are from Fleet Farm; Women are from Nordstrom
Understanding and Improving Communication Between Men and Women
Gender Responsible Leadership: Gender Communication in the Workplace
Men Are From Fleet Farm; Women Are From Nordstrom
If you haven’t noticed, men and women communicate differently. For twenty years I have been collecting communication strategies that help improve communication between men and women. Neither style is better, just different. Unlock the secrets to success in understanding and improving communication with opposite sex.
Men and women often misunderstand each other. Though we don’t plan or expect to make life difficult for each other, we often mistake the ideas and feelings of a person of the other sex.
We can understand and improve communication between men and women.
Participants will learn…
- the four viewpoints on gender communication
- the seven levels of gender communication in the workplace
- the differences in conversation
- the differences in vocabulary and nonverbal communication
- how relationships are created and maintained
Understand male and female realities, the new male-female relationship, and provide gender-responsible leadership!
Men and women use different vocabulary and communication strategies. Let’s visit some of the differences in the way men and women communicate:
- Men use more swearing, hostility, profanity and expletives
- Women use 5-7 times more intensifiers, hedges, adjectives and qualifies – maybe, sort of, kind of, etc.
- Women have a greater repertoire of adjectives and a more expansive vocabulary
- Men interrupt women more often than women interrupt men
- Women are more aware of turn-taking in conversations
- Women ask questions instead of making statements – hinting
- Men don’t get the hint
- Men use more space, dominance cues – speak louder, indirect body posture
It is important to be aware of the differences in how each gender communicates so that we can understand more fully each conversation and not take things too personally. In order to enrich your conversations make sure when speaking with the opposite gender you understand how they communicate.
“Thank you for a fabulous presentation at our Leadership Development conference. You are a dynamic speaker — it was obvious that you had done your homework, because your customized presentation really hit home. Months later, staff are still talking you and are practicing the things that they learned at the event!”
Lisa K. Krause, Service & Staff Development, Mayo Health System
Sexual Harassment: What It is and How to Stop it
We have been hearing a lot about sexual harassment lately. We probably would like to talk about it, but we don’t want to be made fun of and look or sound ignorant to our coworkers concerning the subject. So, what exactly is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that include verbal, written, or physical behavior of a sexual nature, directed at an individual, or against a particular group, because of that person’s or group’s gender, or based on gender stereotypes, and the behavior is unwelcome.
I started delivering presentations on this topic more than 20 years ago. Some people seem to find it difficult to determine when behavior goes from friendly to sexually harassing.
There are three questions to consider:
- Is my intent the same as the impact?
- Do I display any behaviors at work that have sexual undertones or sexual suggestiveness?
- Is my behavior welcome?
Remember that “unwelcome” is decided by the recipient of the behavior, not the person doing the behavior. Therefore, it is the impact of behavior, not the intent of the person who did the behavior, that determines if sexual harassment has occurred.
Participants will learn:
- the critical terminology related to sexual harassment
- long lists of bad behavior that reflect sexual harassment
- the direct and indirect effects of sexual harassment
- how to address it and make it stop