By Jay Forte, Humanetrics LLC

Men and women do not think the same way; biology ensures this. Men think in a more task-focused, competitive and aggressive way – this has insured our survival for thousands of years. Women think in a more verbal, cooperative and interpersonal way – this has ensured the bonding with and development of offspring for thousands of years. We still have the same brains, subjected to the same hormones that activate the switches and inspire our responses – it is our biology. This biology doesn’t change; however, our world and its formula for success changes. The competitive male mind is not as effective in inspiring results today as the engaging and interpersonal female mind. This means that a change in how we manage and who that manager is may be required.

We have moved from brawn to brain, industrial to intellectual, manufacturing to service; today, over eighty percent of all businesses in the US are service because much of manufacturing has moved off shore. As author Seth Godin states, “we used to make food (agrarian society), then we made things (industrial age), now we make ideas” (service economy). No longer do our days include the same repetitive process that hallmarked the manufacturing era. Service (intellectual age) instead, is a thinking and “human” event. To be successful in the service economy, each employee must be engaged, happy and thinking to provide the right level of customer service to build customer loyalty and long term profitability. This is encouraged and developed through a strong employee-focused culture (based on employee needs, values and interests) and supportive employee-management relationships. These relationships are required to understand employees well enough to match their roles with their talents and thinking, encourage them with consistent performance feedback and spend time discussing and defining their development and future. Emotions matter; feelings matter – they both influence performance.

Today, thinking, passion and emotions rule in the workplace; all are resident in differing amounts in each employee. Today’s successful managers are successful because they match employees’ thinking to their roles, help them be great in what they are already good at, and allow them to contribute in a way that matches their personality and style. Studies by the Gallup Organization show that when this is in place, employees become engaged and connected to their workplace; they then perform at greater levels. A supportive, encouraging, educating and coaching approach is required today to get the best from each employee. This is the new style of management called Millennial Management; it responds to the changes that moved us from the command-and-control industrial age, to the community and humanity-based intellectual age. Managers now have the critical role of inspiring, not mandating, performance. This requires great communication, nurturing and interest in each employee. Who is better at this? Let’s look to biology.

Men and women think differently; this will never change. The process- and task-skilled, competitive, aggressive and risk-taking male brain marked by male biology since the start of time, was successful in the agrarian and industrial ages. Men are true to their nature; the flood of testosterone in the male brain activates the switches and chemicals that develops the male brain to compete, dominate and win. In the age of engineering, machinery, productivity and environmental domination, male thinking was a great fit.

Women however, did not receive the flood of testosterone early in their development and therefore have brains that evolved differently. The female’s brain developed to be more supportive, more relationship-based, compassionate and verbal. This insured the nurturing of the offspring and supports her unique role in our survival. As Anne and Bill Moir point out in their book “Why Men Don’t Iron, “Her brain sees more, hears more, communicates better and cross-references much more efficiently. Her brain possesses more verbal resources; the parts of her brain that are devoted to language are larger than the equivalent in the male.” The male brain is better at manual tracking tasks, hand-eye coordination and other spatial events. The male brain has the ability to focus a greater degree of attention task by task. “She has a floodlight, he has a spotlight.”

Men are better with things, women are better with words. In the agrarian and industrial ages, men were well matched to the demands of competition, engineering and aggressive invention; women were effective in these same roles based on their brain chemistry. However, with the arrival of the intellectual and conceptual-age, things have changed and the once powerful male warriors are now more out of place and less equipped to manage this new intellectual and passionate workforce. Men’s brain chemistry favors competition over emotional connection. Women, the natural communicators and compassionate nurturers, have the talents and mindset to engage employees, connect with customers and inspire performance.

This fact creates a new challenge for the workplace. Not only are women better matched to roles of inspiring employees to perform (another way to say “management”), but they are also the best candidates to inspire the workplace to change from its outdated autocratic command-and-control approach to a more team, humanity-based, and engage-and-inspire workplace. Today’s performance is based on talents and natural abilities. Accessing and developing this in each employee has created a unique opportunity for women to advance in management and significantly influence performance.

Does this mean that only women should manage? No, not any more than only men should have managed in the industrial age. However as we saw in the past, women who assumed management roles in the industrial age were required to be more aggressive and competitive – to be more male – to fit in and be more effective. The result was that fewer women held management positions. Today’s managers need to be less autocratic and far more supportive, engaging, and connected to employees to understand them well enough to place them in the right roles and constantly activate their passion for performance. This requires a personal relationship, interest, caring and connection. Without this, employees do not perform. This is not the profile of yesterday’s industrial-age manager. This is a critical reason for the constant turnover and average performance from today’s workforce. This is not always an easy fit for the take-charge male brain.

Right brain, emotional, and value-based thinking is now the key to connecting with and firing up employees, and igniting customer loyalty; today, employees volunteer their effort and performance – employees can’t and won’t be told how to work. Employees perform at significant levels when they are well matched to their job (they are good at what they do), are passionate about what they do (the job is customized for their talents and interests), and have a strong relationship with their manager. This creates the connection that activates performance. Though women may be more naturally pre-disposed to connection and more right-brain thinking due to their brain biology, both men and women are capable of becoming successful intellectual-age managers with the right focus and effort. Interest in employees, constant contact, hiring employees in the right jobs and working to build their skills and performance are all critical roles of today’s successful manager. Find the brain that can encourage and develop this in others and you will have a more effective manager. Follow the old model of men in management and women in supporting roles and your organization will fail to hire, retain and advance the best employees.

In today’s economy, our people (what they think, feel and do) are our profits. Women have a biological advantage to fire up employees and activate a high performing workforce. Start to see your employees and your managers for their talents, rather than gender, age, and ethnicity or by any other bias. What matters most is what is inside…heart and mind…not the outside.

Never has there been a better time for women to advance in management. Gone are the industrial-age “men’s clubs” – their management style is ineffective today. For years, women have had limited access to the executive suite. Previously, they were hired to clean it. Today, they are the right choice to reinvent it, staff it, manage it and turn it into a profit center. Women and all right brain thinkers have the natural abilities and talents to manage this intellectual workforce. Our success is in our natural thinking, inventing and passionate performance. Whoever can best activate this in employees and encourage their great performance is the best choice for the role of manager… and until many male managers learn the new way of managing, it seems likely that great managing may be more resident in a skirt than a shirt.

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