Have you ever got the feeling while sitting around the boardroom table in the company of men that few of the participants are actually listening to the content of what is being said, but rather waiting for the opportunity to interject their opinion?
It seems that very often men have to prove that they are men first before the real facts of the meeting can be discussed.
Jill Hamlyn, MD, People Business
Did it seem not to be a meeting at all, but more a locking of horns in an effort to display the most power and status before anything could be resolved? I was in a boardroom meeting recently during which these behaviours were so apparent that they proved to be the inspiration for this column.
It seems that very often men have to prove that they are men first before the real facts of the meeting can be discussed.
Testosterone is a vital hormone that is responsible for men being men. First the bad news. According to research, testosterone has been implicated in higher levels of aggression and violence. The good news is that testosterone is also a source of strength, energy and drive.
All human beings produce testosterone; it is just the amount that varies, both across and within individuals as well as according to situation. Interestingly, it has been found that high-powered women in business have higher testosterone levels than their less high-powered female counterparts.
Coming out of the closet
It is about time we came out of the closet and admitted that we have hormones and that these hormones affect our daily interactions with people and the environment. Women in business have had to come to a deep understanding of, as well as to terms with, the role that hormones play in their working lives and to manage around these fluctuations accordingly.
The same is also true for testosterone. The amount of testosterone is what makes a man a man, and generally speaking, women want, need and love testosterone in their men. The question is, however, how much of a place testosterone should be given in the boardroom.
To be a mature adult entails admitting that if something affects you, understanding is the best tool for managing the effects. If you understand something, it becomes that much easier to manage it. Complete control may not always be achieved, but the mature management of something that is understood is always an option.
In the workplace, just as women have had to understand and manage themselves around their hormones, so now it is the turn of men to manage the urge to over-dominate and sort out power relations, status and pecking order at the expense of getting down to the business at hand.
Testosterone is important for that killer-instinct in business that is so often the determiner of success or failure. However, that testosterone-driven killer-instinct is not appropriate in every business situation, and it has only the very smallest place in boardroom meetings. The boardroom table is that arena in which the facts and issues at hand need to be sorted out in as effective a manner as possible.
Unless the circumstances are exceptional, there is no room here for chest-beating. Rather, it is important to be able to manage yourself so that you can manage the situation.
Know and manage yourself
Especially at this point in South African business, I firmly believe that it is important to listen, hear, clarify, understand and talk. This is the pivot on which the business of tomorrow rests, and our choice at this stage is to either manage ourselves and change where we see it necessary or to cling desperately to what could become wreckage until we are told to retire. There is little room for that overwhelming urge to protect the ego, make judgment calls without any sound basis and little else. Listening is of paramount importance now.
No doubt each and every one of us can think of a time or situation when someone did not listen and which led to a negative consequence or wasted time that could have been more productively spent. I know I can.
The point is not to emasculate or bring men down - that would be an immature view. So is taking this as a blow for someone in the war of the sexes. Maturity and the ability to take responsibility for managing ourselves are what we are striving for. Business has changed radically and we are all responsible for changing with it and learning the new set of rules that come with the changes. The central tenet of success now is to know yourself, understand yourself and manage yourself accordingly and this includes the behaviour that is produced by your hormones.
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