It is a common misconception that women have better communication and presentation skills than men. However, this is not true. Both men and women do things differently and have a different way of approaching things.
A couple of years ago, a research was conducted in Europe, Canada, and the United States to perceive how gender differences were expressed in the workplace. It proved that both women and men identified similar sets of weaknesses and strengths in each other and in themselves.
Both men and women can enhance their presentation and communication skills by enrolling themselves in various communication courses available both online and offline. For further information, you can check out www.speakwithimpact.com.
Top Communication Strengths in Women
• Capability to interpret body language and detect nonverbal cues
• Excellent listening skills
• Empathy
Top Communication Weaknesses in Women
• Meandering – takes time to get to the point
• Not authoritative
• Immensely emotional
Top Communication Strengths in Men
• Strong Physical Presence
• Direct interactions
• Power display
Top Communication Weaknesses in Men
• Incredibly blunt
• Too confident or opinionated
• Indifferent to the audience reactions
Source: pexels.com
In the workplaces, people are constantly and unconsciously evaluating your communication and presentation style for two qualities – warmth (likeability, empathy, and care), and authority (credibility, power, and status).
There is no single communication style for the business interactions, and there are multiple exceptions. But usually women gain the edge in collaborative environments where inclusive body language, listening skills, and empathy are valued. Men take charge in environments where decisiveness is considered critical.
Anyway, communication styles or presentation skills, no matter how good, must never be overdone. A woman’s collaborative approach can easily be seen as submissiveness while people may believe a man’s directness to be callousness.
Men become too aggressive when their postures encroach upon others’ personal space or when they give out a ‘death grip’ handshake. Women become too weak or passive when they smile too much or discount their own accomplishments and ideas.
Common Comparison Between the Communication Styles of Women and Men at Work
Source: pexels.com
1. To women, proper listening skills include making constant eye contact and reacting visually to the speakers. To men, on the other hand, listening takes place with negligible eye contact and almost zero nonverbal feedback. Women often think lack of eye contact is proof that their boss ‘didn’t pay attention to my input’.
2. When a man nods, it means he agreed to a specific point. When a woman nods, it also means she is encouraging the speaker to continue speaking.
3. Men have the capacity to control their emotions under all circumstances. They can maintain a ‘poker face’ in nearly all business situations. Women, however, are more spontaneous and emotionally expressive. They generally cannot regulate their emotion displays.
4. As they are better at analyzing the entire message (body language and words), women can gauge reactions without any hassle. This lets them assess whether or not they are being properly understood, and adjust accordingly. The female supremacy in reading nonverbal signs is usually thwarted by the men’s ability to conceal facial expressions.
5. Women sound quite emotional as they use nearly five tones when speaking. Also, their voices rise under pressure. Men use about three tones. Their deep voice provides them with the necessary confidence. But since men do not have a diverse vocal range, their speeches tend to sound monotonous.
6. When women arrive at decisions, they think of choices out loud. Men process the choices internally and never speak up until they have a definite solution. Men’s discomfort handling emotions persuades them to look out for solutions as soon as possible. Women understand that at times people just wish to be heard.
Source: pexels.com
7. Men expand their physical presence while women condense their bodies as much as possible. They tightly cross their legs, keep the elbows to the sides, and stack the materials they carry in neat, small piles. Men’s expansive posture allows them to appear confident. However, a woman’s small posture forces her to feel less powerful.
8. In any kind of business meeting, men talk much more than women. One perception of this specific verbal disparity comes from the former Secretary of the State Madeleine Albright. When asked what advice she wished to give to the prospective women professionals, she answered – ‘learn to interrupt’.
9. Two men when conversing will always angle their bodies a bit. On the other hand, two women engaged in a conversation will stand in a ‘squared up’ position. This stance is usually considered by men as confrontational.
10. Men who do not know one another properly will keep a distance. However, women do not care about maintaining any distance even with people they just met. This difference in the interpersonal distance influenced by gender stands true even on online platforms that rely on avatars. Most of the unconscious protocols present in the physical world are prevalent in the virtual world as well.
11. Finally, yet one of the most important comparisons in the professional realm is that men make direct accusations. Women however try staying away from confrontation as much as possible. They prefer indirect accusations. Such a trait is not believed to be useful in the workplaces. Always try to be upfront.
These are all common perceptions based on certain research. However, this does not apply to all women or all men.
It is still beneficial to know when your personal communication style acts as an asset and when it becomes an obstruction.
Comparing your weaknesses and strengths to the generalized gender differences is perhaps the best place to begin. Expanding your expertise of communication skills so you can successfully employ effective strategies will let you stay ahead of the curve.
As we could see from the above paragraphs, there is no clear answer to the question. Both men and women are equally good in all aspects of professional life. Everyone has their fair share of strengths and weaknesses. They need to exert as much effort as possible to improve the former and get rid of the latter.
