Category Archives: Gender & Communication Styles

voice bias

Blind interviews and voice bias

How much attention do you pay to voice when you think of a leader or when you hear a speaker?  I cut my teeth on old school telephone interviewing so can confirm that voice  definitely plays a role in the assessment of someone. Voices are an integral part of our identity and we can all…

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Funny. But not really funny. @Manwhohasitall

Billed as a Twitter parody on the ridiculous advice given to women, when I first saw the tweets I laughed. Really laughed. These gender reverse tips are super funny. Along with several tens of thousands, I shared them on Twitter and Facebook. The tweet about the scented candle really resonated. As did the one on guilt. There was also something Pythonesque about…

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alpha bitch

A case for the “alpha bitch”

Suzannah works in investment banking. She is on track for a senior role and intends to have a high 6 figure salary (at least) by the time she is 40. Her goal is to break through the glass ceiling in this male dominated sector which has less than 10%  women at board level. Sacrifice culture A 70 hour week…

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Ladies get your heads above the parapet!

Ladies get your heads above the parapet!

  What are you doing to become visible? One of the strongest comments made about the average professional woman is their reluctance to step up, engage and make themselves visible. Ladies get your heads above the parapet! The creativity required to dream up the excuses I hear from these ladies alone, suggests their inner capabilities.…

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Trapped! Women and the smiling myth

Or why does no one write books about men not smiling enough? Click To Tweet A few weeks ago I wrote a post “10 ways women supposedly sabotage their careers“. It sparked some heated discussion. The 10 ways were lifted somewhat unceremoniously by Citibank’s Diversity Department, from the book Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner…

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10 ways women supposedly sabotage their careers!

Career advice for women? Seriously? My good friend Silvana Delatte sent me this link from Business Insider about a laminated sheet supposedly issued by the HR department of Citibank on how women sabotage their careers. If this is not a spoof (which I suspect it might be) then it makes interesting, if not incredible (as…

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Women and communication: a salutary personal tale

Dorothy and the suspect search consultant On average, women use twice the number of words per day than men. Women maintain eye contact while speaking for twelve seconds vs. a man maintaining eye contact for three seconds. Women supply detail to build rapport , men speak directly in short sentences going straight for the bottom…

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workplace language

Cleaning up workplace language: Swearing on the !@x* job

How do changes in workplace language effect us and what is the impact of swearing on the %!@x* job? I am no stranger to the odd expletive. I was recently defrauded by a client and I have to confess that my vocabulary was related to the legitimacy of his parentage, rather than “dash and oh dear”.…

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