Truth About Managing People ... and Nothing but the Truth, The

Chapter 39. Men and Women DO Communicate Differently

Recent research confirms what many of us have thought true since our adolescent days: Men and women often have difficulty communicating with each other. The reason? They use conversation for different purposes. Men tend to use talk to emphasize status, while women generally use it to create connection. These differences create real challenges for managers.

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. Intimacy emphasizes closeness and commonalties. Independence emphasizes separateness and differences. But men and women handle these conflicts differently. Women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, while men speak and ...