What Your Male Boss Thinks

“When working with men, we’re essentially working with a foreign culture,” Shaunti Feldhahn, author of The Male Factor, tells PINK. She interviewed more than 3,000 men to decode what they really think of women at work.

When men say, “It’s not personal, it’s just business,” they mean it, says Feldhahn. “If they see [women] at work handling things in a personal way, they’ll view [them] as less business-like, less experienced and less savvy.”

Most men can’t process logic and emotion at the same time – so they think you’re irrational if you’re emotional. “I spoke to a top-ranking woman at one of the largest companies in the world,” says Feldhahn. “She’d say, ‘I’m getting passionate and emotional about this problem, but I’ll be fine in five minutes.’ They needed to think there was a [time] gap,

though she was being logical and emotional all at once.”

When asked what top tip men would give women to help them advance at work, “51 percent said ‘just be yourself. Don’t try to be like a guy, be who you are.’’’ A big reason for this, Feldhahn says, is that men are more likely to trust the results of someone who is authentic.

What can be done? “We can manage our perceptions instead of having them managed for us,” she says. This can be as simple as reading body language, asking if anyone has questions during a presentation and anticipating situations where you may be misunderstood.

Bonus PINK Link: Find out more male brain secrets in our online exclusive.

By Caroline Cox 

“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be
thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.” Charlotte Whitton