Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Male-female speaking "styles" hinder communication

Women tend to face each other and make eye contact.

Men tend to sit side-by-side and talk to an imaginary audience.

Even when women sit side-by-side, they will turn to each other to watch for visual cues confirming that they are interested in the conversation or not.   

Because men turn away, look down or do something else when the woman speaks, he misses out when she stops nodding her head, looks away or becomes busy to show she’s ready to speak.  

Worse, it feels belittling to her that he can’t be bothered to show her the attention—or respect—she showed him.  

He may be paying attention to her, but he sees face-to-face as a form of confrontation—unless he has the floor. 

Women sometimes don't feel as comfortable interrupting because they've probably been taught that "butting in" is rude. 

Differing “styles” make it harder for men to sell to women and harder for women to do well in the workplace.  

Unless they know how to read and use both styles, the differences not only will hurt their ability to communicate, but to understand what's really going on.    

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