If you’ve decided to move a step up the promotional ladder, working exclusively among men, you should be ready for certain difficulties: you will definitely have to “open up new lands”. In order not to feel like a hopeless foreigner, you should learn the rules of business behavior in this “male kingdom”.
It is very difficult to work with the opposite sex. It is as if you were landed in the rear of the enemy without knowledge of language, the art of self-defense and even without a map. And while everyone around speaks the same language, acts identically and even has the same thoughts, you have to waste time to orient, find your bearings and act.
From different worlds…
As a rule, boys and girls reach the age of reason, having diametrically opposite scale of values, which they take with themselves to adult life. Favorite boys’ games (war, policemen) initially imply some kind of organization with a leader, whose commands are followed by subordinates. Voluntary consolidation is done with a concrete view, for example, a view of winning a victory over a neighbor team or building a raft for a river journey. On the other hand, girls play “dolls” or “shops” for enjoyment from the process of communication with friends. There is no strict subordination, like boys have, no competition and, accordingly, no winners or losers. Everyone feels equally good.
As a result, girls learn how to:
- To play in pairs;
- To establish trust-based relations with friends;
- To act honestly to everyone around.
Meanwhile, boys learn how to:
- To play in team;
- To compete;
- To achieve goals.
Family and society traditionally tend to foster active, independent, aggressive boys and weak, dependant, compliant girls. Coming to the “male” system and having no skills, important for survival, women inevitably have to deal with psychological difficulties. However, while adapting to the hostile environment, we gain an opportunity to make a brilliant display of our female advantages: intuition, ability to obtain consent, ability to set up a managerial process.
Principle of organization.
As one English saying goes, “men differ from boys only by size of their toys”. That is why male business is generally organized on the principle of sport games. As a rule, male team is formed with an initially clear goal: gain profit and defeat competitors.
Well coordinated working partnership is necessary for fulfillment of this task; it is possible to achieve such partnership only by creation a strict vertical hierarchy within a team, headed by a Boss (a prototype of children’s leaders). He gives instructions and controls the course of events, assigns “players”, taking into account their abilities, skills and experience, and says goodbye to unnecessary or inappropriate “troops” without compunction. “Male” hierarchy not always fits in female vision of the world, where everyone has the same rights, compromise is more important than victory, and “success” and “harmony within a team” are equal on the scale of values. That is why, having found yourself in a male team, you have to learn its regulations thoroughly, understand cobwebs of relations and find your own place, the place of an ordinary “lay sister”, who dreams to place herself at the head of this “monastery” one day.
Being raised in hierarchy structure since childhood, boys get used to discipline and implicit obedience. Only the leader has the right to decide who would do the job and what job he would do: today you may be a forward, and tomorrow you are a defender of even a goalkeeper. And a subordinate must obey every time, performing his duties almost without any improvisation. That is why men as if draw a circle around themselves and jealously protect the borders: “It is my project, I make decisions!” So, at the beginning, it makes sense to watch who does a job, what job he does and where authorities of your colleagues start and end. Don’t hurry to help anyone: it would be better to focus on performing your own duties.
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