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It is accepted in the business world that women and men communicate differently. It is also accepted that for motivating employee performance men and women need to not only understand the finer nuances of communication, but also work hard at overcoming gender based communication skills and biases.

Let us take a look at the most encountered methods that motivate and inspire employee to give their best in an organization:

1.   Decision making – a woman would prefer to consult her team before she takes a decision; a man would think deeply, come to a decision and bark it out aloud for all to follow. Motivating employee performance demands that decisions often be taken without a common consensus – hence women need to develop the ability to make a decision on their own. Sometimes a certain amount of participatory approach needs to be applied to ensure that the team is on the same page.
2.   Building rapport – motivating employee performance means you need to build a rapport. Women tend to connect at personal levels and build a relationship with whomever they come into contact professionally. On the other hand, men communicate as one-up or one-down basis.  Men need to learn to build rapport even better; women need to be a little more detached emotionally from their professional relationships.
3. Reaction to disagreement – women when faced with disagreement, allow the negativity of the experience seep into all aspects of their lives, including personal life. Men, on the other hand can disagree on one aspect and then go for a drink together as if nothing happened.  For motivating employee performance women need to disconnect professional life from their personal one; in this aspect the attitude of men is quite healthy.
4. Networking and relationships – women feel that good communication is the outcome of a good relationship and focus on building such relationship. Men on the other hand feel that good communication is all about being clear about tasks at hand. Both genders are right here. A good inter-personal rapport does help increasing motivation at workplace; also clarity in roles and tasks assists good communication.
5.  Authority vs. persuasion in controlling their team – men use authority to get a task done; women on the other hand use persuasion. In this aspect, women need to inject more authority in their style of operation; and men require a little tempering with participatory approach to ensure that they are best motivating employee performance.

 

 

© 2011 Incedo Group, LLC

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