Are Women Being Heard?
What Men and Women Can Learn From
Each Other About Giving Presentations
Only 8 Fortune 500 companies are run by women, and a total of 16 Fortune 1000 companies have women in the top job.
Michael Kinsman of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that women hold just 15.7 percent of top management jobs in Fortune 500 companies.
There are many reasons, theories and opinions as to why women still lag behind men in the top jobs.
But what happens in conference rooms and at company-wide meetings? When women speak, are they being heard?
Some women don’t think so.
Several women I recently spoke with are in the scientific field, a field dominated by men. They felt that their biggest challenge was being heard and that sometimes the same information presented by a man to the same audience would be heard and listened to with more respect and perceived credibility.
Well, it seems that both women and men can learn from each other when it comes to giving presentations.
Dave Zielinski in the May 2004 issue of Presentations Magazine explored the subject in depth in his article From the Playground to the Podium: What Men and Women Can Learn from Each Other.
I’d like to share with you Dave’s conclusions and my thoughts on what men and women can learn from each other in the presenting arena.
What women can learn from men
1. Quash the qualifiers
Dave: Women often soften their statements by qualifiers such as I sort of thought,or in my opinion or this might be a better way. Compare these statements: In my opinion, the project will work better if we bid separately versus The project will work better if we bid separately. The latter is more powerful.
Dana: Please remove the word like from your vocabulary in inappropriate places. For example: The real estate market in this area has appreciated like 25 percent in the last year versus The real estate market in this area has appreciated 25 percent in the last year.
2. Go by the numbers
Dave:...