As we surveyed similarities and differences in how men and women perceive, define, and pursue satisfaction in their work, we found that both men and women place a high premium on feeling authentic at work. They both agreed with assertions such as, “I seek congruence between my feelings and my actions” and “I strive to be the same person at work and at home.” Yet, achieving this kind of alignment can be difficult for women because what they notice, value, and believe the world should be often runs counter to the culture they find at work. In order to make their best contribution, women must find a way to communicate and build support for what they most authentically see.
When women speak the truth about what they see, women, organizations, and the world reap the rewards. Women gain energy and a sense of purpose by connecting what is best in themselves with what they seek to accomplish. Organizations access fresh ideas and perspectives by earning to value intuitive insight along with analytical skills. And the world moves toward a safer and more sustainable understanding of what constitutes progress by framing it in a broader social context.
What women see, therefore, matters.
It matters especially given the interconnected nature of today’s global environment, in which mistakes have consequences that can reverberate unexpectedly in far corners of the world. We can no longer afford — as individuals or as citizens of the planet — to operate from an artificially restricted pool of data that ignores the diverse richness of what human beings perceive; the cost of doing so has simply become too high. Addressing the complexities of our common future requires us to see the world from a full perspective, employing a wide lens as well as a sharp focus.
This post was excerpted from The Female Vision, published by Berrett-Kohler Publishers, June 2010.
Sally Helgesen is the author of five books, including the classic best-seller, The Female Advantage, celebrating its 20th year in print, and The Web of Inclusion, described by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books on leadership ever published. She is an international speaker and groundbreaking thinker on leadership and organizations.
Julie Johnson, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, is considered to be one of America’s most experienced and well respected coaches. She has coached hundreds of senior executives in blue chip companies and has worked with many of the most successful women in the Fortune 500. Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review as well as in the noted book, Coaching for Leadership.
