Boost Your Profile & Your Profits

Are Women Snubbing Men in The Boardroom?

Imagine this...

You are one of one hundred and thirty females walking into a room to learn how to network with men to gain board positions.

As you walk in you see the only male presenter standing there smiling at you as you come in the door. “He” is not directly in the doorway however he is standing out just far enough from it that you have to change direction to make your way around him to enter the room and find your seat.

What do you do?

A.)   Make an effort to meet and greet him and establish rapport? After-all his connections could be beneficial to your career.

B.)   Do you smile back with a warm nod of acknowledgement, i.e. I acknowledge your existence out of politeness.

Or?

C.) Casually walk by pretending he isn’t even there?

Well this isn’t a ‘pretend’ scenario – this actually happened and the answer absolutely floored me as it may you.

The answer was C - one hundred and twenty seven women successfully decided to walk by and ignore one of only five males in the room. Not only that, but they ignored the only male presenter that they had paid to see speak to learn simple step-by-step techniques for networking more effectively with men for board positions.

This situation resulted in the speaker swiftly changing his introduction to pose quite a different and curious question;

“Out of interest how many of you actually greeted me as you walked in the room?”

Three women responded. He then went on to say,

“Isn’t that interesting – you’re all here to learn how to network with men and yet you didn’t even acknowledge the few males that are in this room tonight. Out of sheer curiosity can I ask why?”
 
The silence that followed was more deafening than Lady Gaga’s latest outfit.

Why would women decide to ignore the males in the room?

Did they do it without realising?

This audience was oblivious to the fact that they had even conducted themselves in such a manner, which poses some very serious questions;

• Are women sabotaging their own success in the boardroom by failing to network with men – the same men that hold majority of director and board positions?

• Are they seeking out males of influence at networking events to assist in furthering their careers or are they avoiding approaching them all together?

• Or, is this simply an isolated incident and quite an enlightening one at that?

Common logic would scream that if you are seeking board positions you would immediately flock to the key influencers that can cultivate such an outcome and take the time to build a relationship with them.

Now, the presenter may not have been a director they cared to influence – but why did they choose to ignore him and the other men in the room in such a manner?

So, are women snubbing men in the boardroom?  

What are your thoughts? Post your responses below by hitting 'comment' now. I would love to know your thoughts and learn of any similar experiences you may have encountered.
 

If the idea of networking intrigues you, grab your copy of Ben’s new book, "Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business – The Ultimate Guide to Attracting & Seducing More Customers” and find out how you can easily apply it in a simple step-by-step manner to attract & seduce new customers TODAY!

Posted by Ben Angel - Personal Branding on 1st July, 2010 | Comments | Trackbacks
Tags:

The trackback URL for this page is http://www.benangel.com.au/trackback?post=24903334

Trackbacks

There are no trackbacks for this post

Comments

There are no comments for this post

Post a Comment

HTML is not allowed in comments, http://... will be automatically linked.