Differences in male and female communication styles

by Simma Lieberman
While much has been said about women and men being from different planets and having their own cultures, the reality is that we have all grown up on the same planet, and interactwith each other in different ways on a daily basis.

Its fun to look at communication differences between men and women but we also have to be careful to not stereotype and assume that all menwill act a certain way and all women will act a certain way. We are all on a continuum and there are women that have some traits that might be attributed to the male style or there are times when it isnecessary to use the male style and the same for men. Here are two examples:

1. The head surgeon in the operating room is a woman. If she is operating on you would you prefer she uses a consensusbased style to make decisions and ask everyone what they think during the operation, or a hierarchical style and tell the medical personnel when to sew you up. The consensus based style is consideredfemale, and the hierarchical is considered male, but for that woman to be the head surgeon, you can be sure that she had to get comfortable giving orders and having them obeyed in the operating room.2. The executive director of your organization is male. The majority of the staff is female. You are all going on a team building retreat, but the destination has not been decided yet. Would yourather have a director who decides for the group where to go, even if the whole organization hates it, or would you rather he takes a consensus based approach and asks for input. Consensus decisionmaking style is considered a female style, but it that executive director is serious about team building, he better ask people for ideas, or they might decide they aren’t comfortable with his choice and beresentful, not the environment to build a successful work team.

Whether its nature or nurture, there may be individuals who possess almost none of the traits attributed to their gender. They may...