Women are an increasingly dynamic force in the business world.
They're creating more firms, employing more people and grabbing
more sales. And while some may think this is occurring by
happenstance, one expert believes the reason for the increase in
women entrepreneurs is not purely economic and social, but also
biological and historical.
Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, New Jersey, states in her book, The First Sex: The
Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World
(Random House), "Men and women emerge from the womb with some
innate tendencies and proclivities bred on the grasslands of Africa
millennia ago. The sexes are not the same. Each has some natural
talents."
Fisher hopes that by understanding these talents, women can
recategorize perceived weaknesses as strengths. The natural talents
Fisher believes will allow women to change the business world
are:
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1. Communication skills. "Girls speak sooner
and are better at articulating and finding the right word
rapidly," says Fisher, who's convinced this will benefit
women in the new knowledge economy.
2. People skills. Women are also better at reading
emotions in faces and deciphering postures, gestures and voice
inflections. Fisher says these people skills are essential in
another booming part of the economy: the service sector.
3. Web thinking. "Women gather more data from
their environment and construct more intricate relationships
between the information," explains Fisher. "By contrast,
men tend to compartmentalize--to get rid of ancillary data and
focus only on what they regard as important."
Fisher offers this example of web thinking: "An employer
who couldn't decide whether to give a raise to a young man or a
young woman called both into his office. He said, `Here's a
business problem. Which solution would you choose: A, B or C?'
Both went home and thought about it. The following morning the
young man walked in and said, `I'd choose solution B.' The
young woman said she would choose solution A if she wanted to solve
problems X and Y; solution B if she wanted to solve problems W and
Z; and so on. She was using web thinking," says Fisher.
"She cast the problem in a broad contextual perspective. She
arrived at the solution but took in more data to do it."
While today many people regard men's linear thinking as the
best business model, Fisher notes a growing movement toward web
thinking heralded by buzz phrases such as "breadth of
vision." "The business world is also becoming more
complex, which means you have to weigh more factors to assess what
you're doing and where you're going," she adds.
Related to web thinking are intuition, imagination, an ability
to multitask, a capability for long-term planning, mental
flexibility and a tolerance of ambiguity. Fisher believes demand
for these skills will grow as global trade increases.
4. Consensus-building skills. Women are skilled
negotiators who focus on creating win-win situations and harmonious
collaborations.
But there's a downside to striving for harmony, cautions
Fisher. "Women have a terrible time working with people they
don't like," she says.
5. The drive to nurture. "In business, you see
the real importance of this in building long-term client
relationships that require networking and nurturing
friendships," says Fisher.
This nurturing instinct includes women's need to balance
work and family--another reason Fisher believes more women are
attracted to entrepreneurship. Self-employment facilitates a life
balance.
Although Fisher believes these skill areas are highly developed
in most women, she acknowledges that not all women possess them.
"We all know exceptions to the rule," she says, "but
what's interesting is that there are rules."