3 Tips For Women Entrepreneurs To Communicate Better
Posted by Vicki Donlan on Thu, Apr 07, 2011 @ 10:20 AM
Women entrepreneurs must work on their communication skills if they truly want to succeed in business. This is not to say that men have better communication skills - there is no evidence to that fact. However, men have been in the small business arena in the majority for a long time and their communication style has been accepted for better or worse.
(1) Body Language
Studies show that women demonstrate different body language than men when listening to others. You can test this fact yourself. When men listen they generally remain completely still, so still it is difficult to know whether one is getting the point of the conversation across. On the other hand, when women listen they tend to shake their head up and down as if they are agreeing with the speaker. Unfortunately, they may not agree with the speaker at all and in the case of a sales pitch the salesperson is take aback when the sale isn't accepted.
The best body language for a woman entrepreneur when listening is to share her interest in the speaker by direct eye contact and no head movement. In this way, there is no presumption as to her intentions and her verbal communication will be what is remembered.
(2) Clarity
Verbal clarity certainly isn't based on gender, however, in too many cases decision-making seems to be something men do better than women. The fact that "what do women want?" is a movie, song and statement that men around the globe consistently ask suggests that there is a communication problem. Women entrepreneurs, particularly, must be decisive with employees, vendors and customers in order to be successful. Making decisions in business is how a company moves forward. It is a requirement for leadership. It is better to make a wrong decision than to make no decision at all. People in business must have clarity as to the expectation and goals of the CEO.
(3) Feel vs. Think
It is no surprise that women tend to bring more emotion into their communication style then men do. Too much emotion displayed can be detrimental to a company. Emotional people are seen as unstable people. Leaders must be compassionate and caring, but not to the point of being seen as weak. The first thing a woman entrepreneur should do is pay attention to the amount of times she uses the word feel in place of think. As silly as this sounds there is a big difference between thinking you should add a new product to your inventory and feeling it is a good idea.
Women continue to thrive in small businesses around the globe. How they communicate in their businesses is critical to their success. Begin with these 3 tips and let me know how it goes...vicki@vickidonlan.com
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