In the world of business, good communication means everything. As a public relations firm specialized in marketing to women, how we communicate on behalf of our clients and our brand is very important to us.
A recent blog post from CEO Penny Herscher got us thinking about how different communication styles are employed by males and females and how effective or sometimes ineffective they can be.
Herscher offers the advice to talk like a man. She gives the example of going to France…in order to work with a team of native French people, it would be necessary to speak their language. She stresses the same thing is true for women trying to communicate with men in the world of business.
We’ve blogged before about Deborah Tannen and her book, You Just Don’t Understand. Professor Tannen points out that the way women talk creates connection while men’s language transfers information. Women are creating community as they speak; men are establishing status. Herscher states “we are brainwashed by the media — women create the home, men are on the hunt. So while we make nice, men figure out who’s on top (status-wise of course).”
We agree to some extent that there are certain gender communication issues that must be worked out in business. But as communications professionals, we think it’s much more complicated than that. In order to communicate with anyone, regardless of gender, it’s important to first understand where he or she is coming from. Marketing and public relations efforts can’t be boiled down to male messages and female messages. Strategies must be crafted based on thorough research and clear understanding of motivating factors, which often goes much deeper than “man” vs. “woman.”
FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.