Readers of my blog will have read about how neuroscience has identified the gender-based differences in mental programming. Scholars from Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford to name but a few are recognising the deep-level impact on a behavioural basis caused by these differences.

Why are these messages not hitting home in the Business community? In my view, when in Rome, you have to speak Italian (to paraphrase the old adage), so when making the business case of gender diversity, we have to talk facts, metrics and, then, focus (or take a left-brain approach to the subject…).

The facts:

Anthropological as well as societal differences have serious implications on the perceived roles of men and women:

• As the lynch-pins of society (and a strong dose of Oxytocin, the “bonding” hormone) women have a strong code of altruism and “caring” leads the mind and the heart
• Flexibility is key: women’s brain super-highway linking the left and right brain (the Corpus Collussum) is richer by 20million neurons. Where do we think the multi-tasking capabilities of answering the phone, hovering the floor with baby in tow come from?

In a broad-brush summary some of the implications are that in business the feminine value-system is very strongly linked in terms of long-term sustainable development, strategy implementation, Corporate Social Responsibility and ethics.

Metrics:
When considering that women and men, with our average mental preferences for left and right brain, when combined, we complement each other perfectly. So, in a Whole Brain context, the combination of the 2 averages leads to the optimal – which increases any team’s effectiveness by 66%. This is according to research by Charles D. Rigger.

Add the fact of that, according to Catalyst the group of companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experienced:

• Improved Return on Equity (ROE), which at 35.1% higher
• Total Return to Shareholders (TRS) which at 34% higher, than the groups of companies with the lowest women’s representation (The Bottom Line, Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity, Catalyst, 2004)  

Focus
Linking the facts and metrics above, leads us to consider that the company performance and effectiveness can only benefit from increased female representation at all levels in the business.

What we need to do is to focus on how we can best utilise the facts and metrics to create a strategically diversity-empowered positioning for our company and a powerful, genuine employer brand to support it. How do we do that?

• We need to take the discussion and actions around Diversity into the Leadership of our organisation – not sideline it to a separate department and create women’s networks that are but a “knitting circle”.
• We have to invest in the understanding of where the organisation sits in internal and external stakeholders’ perspectives on Diversity and our business’ innovation capabilities
• Need to incorporate policies and practices that make Diversity of Thinking (non-gender-based) as core to the business. Why? More diversity of thinking = greater innovation.
• We have to create and nurture a culture that embraces differences – appreciating where feminine values and behaviours are just as beneficial (see facts section above) as what would be “masculine” value-systems.
• We need to understand what dictates the male-female spheres, and what is important to us, and that these can co-exist, and even create powerful fusion to lead to on-going, systemic innovation.

The greatest proof is in that, for those progressive organisations such as Deloitte that have gone through a serious cultural transformation to redress the brain-drain of women leaving their business, the benefits are visible and are palpable to both genders, creating working culture that is inclusive, flexible and, most importantly, high-performing

So, your organisation has a set senior management team, and a concrete workforce. Given recent pressure to downsize, you have just undertaken a cost-cutting exercise and made “excess” staff redundant. In doing so, how did you decide the staff to keep, and the employees to “let go”?

One of the fastest things to happen in the world of business are re-organisations, restructurings where the sufferers are, unfortunately, those who are most vulnerable. Those are marginalised, non-integrated employees who, due to a difference in their approach to business or perspective, are seen as not following the corporate line and so, are the first to go.

As humans, we are attracted to liaise and interact with those who are similar to us, and so it is no criticism to do that. What we have to recognise is that we DO have this tendency to value like-mindedness, and then mitigate this from happening.

How do you do that?

Understand we are all prejucided, we all have our biases

Whether we like it or not, we all have our set of ideas and preconceptions based on our education and experience. It is natural – our brains do this to basically save on time and increase efficiency: it fills in the gaps through a process called Predictive Coding. So, any experience it has “seen” in the past, it will revert to time and time again when necessary. Only when we address these, and the Implicit Association Tests are a fabulous tool  do we see how we may be “blinkered”. To give a gender-based example, through the IAT you can see whether you have a bias on the role of women and home, for example, or whether you have a tendency to associate men more to business.

Appreciate differences – particularly in high-stress

We all have the people that we see eye-to-eye with at work and those that we run a mile from. Why? The ones that we get on with, are likely to be similar in education, outlook or personality. They are also the ones that we can relate to when the chips are down. One of the reasons we work with Whole Brain Technology, is that it allows to understand mental preferences of employees and how they are likely to respond to stress. In high-pressure situations is when the greatest amount of conflict arises; as we are all a set of synapses and hormones, all collude to our most extreme preference and some of us tend to become highly emotional or whilst others retreat to our personal worlds to solve our problems.

Embrace and manage conflict

In high-stress situations, a leader or manager needs to be able to understand the different perspectives of employees that are not seeing eye-to-eye. Human instinct, once again, is likely to motivate us to “side” with the person we agree with and not the “problem” person. Leaders recognise the differences and, as Steven Covey stated “Seek to Understand, then Be Understood”. This does not just require a coaching approach to leadership, but a confidence to work with conflict and diffuse it without stifling the problem-solving capabilities of those involved. A step-by-step process, will help remove emotionality as well as focus on the outcomes.

Cognitive Diversity – will lead you to faster and better solutions

Research into team effectiveness has highlighted that teams or organisations with high diversity of employees in terms of their education, skills, age, and gender lead to improved problem-solving and, ultimately, innovation. E.g. studies that isolate diversity in skills such as between types of engineers, show evidence that diversity improves performance.

The key to encouraging diversity of thinking, and ultimately benefit from its productivity gains, is confidence and structure in working with conflict and appreciating differences.

So, next time you are looking at your organisation in view of restructuring, don’t aim to just “let go” those that are different who may not have the relevant skills or are perhaps just “different”. Be aware why you are singling them out, and perhaps consider that they can do more for your business than those that appear to “fit the mould”. What you may need is not to let go of your employees, but develop leadership skills and learning to help you leverage the effectiveness of a diverse workforce.

Employees in this climate are likely to review their priorities – is it worth me breaking my back and working so long, when I could easily be next?

This is a time when large corporates should learn from the lessons that small business can share. I can personally recount a time in my life when my previous entrepreneurial venture had its days numbered, that my staff gave me 150%. Numerous stories exist, movies have been filmed of the super-human effort of all employees, owners, suppliers alike to save a fighting cause. Far from Hollywood, however, sometimes the ship does sink in the end. Despite the immense efforts, new ideas tried, products sold it sometimes is not enough.

As the person who lost the most in that venture (3 years of pain, tears and not to mention endless pots of money raised on re-mortgages and credit cards), I take the memory of my staff working round the clock to try and redress the situation. At one time, one of my staff did not want to leave the premises to attend to her mother who had just been hospitalised with heart issues because she felt guilty of leaving – she had developed such a strong sense of duty to “do her bit” that she did not want to leave. I had to gently push her out the door….

I was shocked, and, at the same time moved. What had I done to deserve such loyalty, such care, so that my employees were so devoted to and attached to the business?

I had done just that: I had given them faith and something to believe in. I had given them the belief that they could really be instructive in turning things around. I gave them freedom to try new things – at the end of the day, it would not have hurt to try, would it? I had also been very open with them about the situation. I did not choose to hide behind the veil of hope. I kept them informed of the status quo, and that we were running on empty. Money was tight (that is what ultimately killed the business), so we could not spend a penny more. And perhaps it was this combination of events that really made the difference to their engagement.

So, here is a note to large businesses out there. As you are cutting R and D budgets (according to the Financial Times, in 2008 the total R&D expenditures of S&P 500 companies, based on the approximately 200 companies that report them quarterly, declined 13 per cent – from a total of $43.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $37.4bn in the third quarter of 2008), consider the following lessons from a faltering business which experience the ultimate engagement levels from its employees:

 
Give faith

Give each one of your employees the knowledge that they can make each make a difference to the business’ future, that they have been selected and trained because they have the capability to make things happen

Empower

Enable employees to take their own decisions, remind them that they are accountable for them. When people are treated like adults, they behave like adults (it is only in an environment reminiscent of a playground that they behave like children)

Enable freedom

Give them the wings to try what they think is the best approach to solving a problem without fear of reprisal nor criticism

Be transparent

Openly communicate the challenges and state what may happen if there is no turn-around. Honesty will be appreciated and results will ensue

Foster creativity

Your employees are on the “shop floor”. They know what needs fixing and can suggest ways that would make a difference to them and the business. Support avenues of creativity whereby departments collaborate on resolving processes, communication blockages or new customer propositions. Listen to them.

These days no business large or small is immune to the challenges of the credit crunch. However increasing employee morale and achieving workforce engagement to as close as 100% as possible can really make the difference when the chips are down. Act now, before it is too late.

So, banks are forcing businesses and consumers in any way they can to cough up the goods. At all risk. It is like they have been given clear instructions to get funds no-matter what. People who have up til now had gleaming credit scores with few loans and no defaults, are being treated like criminals. Like absolute dirt. Why? Because they have been caught out when the hyper-inflated credit bubble burst. One of the most heart-felt and honest recordings of bully tactics used by some of the world’s financial institutions have been logged at http://creditcrunchersdiary.blogspot.com/.

In today’s competitive world, negative customer service experience opens the door to your competition. Customers are savvy, they know what they want and will easily walk away if their requirements are not met.

In these difficult times, there are few people that have not felt the pinch. So, I would, like the author of the http://creditcrunchersdiary.blogspot.com/ blog Paola Bassenesse, believe that banks should be out to support, delight, enthuse customers and thus achieve recurring business by offering irresistible service.

I believe, like with all diversity training I deliver, it is important to see things from the customer’s point of view. Stand in their shoes (or stilettos), and try to understand and feel what they may be going through.

Consider the last time when you, as a consumer of a product, got on the phone to speak to your bank. What is it you wanted in relation to your specific problem? Were you looking for someone to read a script back at you and tell you that there is no way to look into a solution to that given problem? How did you feel?

So, my question is, why do companies insist on doing that: speaking to us like we are sorry scum for inconveniencing them?

For those companies that want to avoid this pitfall, here are some tips to consider:

1. Understand Customer Motivators

Identify what customers want from the relationship with you at that specific moment. My guess is that it is likely to revolve around options to make something happen or avoid something else occurring. In the credit card repayment scenario an example could be payments of part of that which is owed, even to the amount of £1… best to get £1 a week for a few months than a disgruntled customer.

We invite the staff to consider that customers may not have chosen to get into such financial difficulties. Nor have they chosen to have to tell a complete stranger that things are financially dire for them. Having faced the personal blow of losing a business and all my money with it, I can tell you, it is hard.

2. Listen, listen, listen!

Listen to what your customer is saying and reassure them! Repeat what the customer has said to you, using their own language. Ignore the little voice in your head that is telling you how unreasonable the customer is being. But repeat what they have said, such as “So, you would like us to freeze your overdraft charges and remove them completely? ” This goes hand in hand with the next point…

3. Use a gentle, understanding tone of voice and language of empathy

It does not hurt to say the words “I understand, it must be difficult, Mrs Ioannidis, we will look into what we can do for you”.

Even if you have to resort to a no. at least then the customer has felt that he has been listened to, rather than out rightly ignored. Empathy is key.

4. Empower customer service staff

Allow flexibility in your company processes and empower customer service assistants to use their discretion in solving customer service issues. Unfortunately, this is an anathema for most companies. However, it is critical to be able to support changes to company processes for the benefit for keeping a seriously disgruntled customer.
A great example of this is a personal experience where I received a phone call from what I believed was my mobile phone provider. I was offered to buy mobile insurance following a mobile upgrade. I signed up, and asked the persistent woman on the phone to send me the paperwork. Two weeks later. I had not heard from the company nor received the policy in the post, so I called my mobile provider, Carphone Warehouse. After a lengthy conversation, I was told that they had not contacted me, that it must have been one of the rogue companies that pass themselves as Carphone Warehouse in order to get client account details. I was shocked – I had been unaware that any such companies existed. But the most astonishing fact is, is that when I said I still wanted to sign up for the insurance, I was told that I was over the 14 days in which to do so, and that they could not do anything about it. I wanted to buy the service, but was told I could not!   Inflexibility ruled their processes, so they have jeopardised my relationship with them. What a waste. 

5. Keep Marketing informed of Customer Service Issues and Remedies

The Marketing and Customer Services departments should be on the look-out for specific trends that could lead to a new service or proposition that could help gain customer loyalty in the short term.

How about a credit card freeze, where yes, interest may be charged, but the customer only needs to pay that £1 per month minimum payment? Or a payment holiday? These are now commonplace in the mortgage market.

In a time like this, any bank or institution that was seen to behave in a humane way would reap the benefits – yes, this involves a certain financial investment; however, they would then have earned their customers’ loyalty and the positive word-of-mouth which would, in the long-term, compensate their short-term exposure.

But perhaps that is where the deep-rooted problem is – the apparent inability to consider the long-term implications of actions taken on real people, their customers and stakeholders. This has been the great determinant for banks and financial institutions being in the mess they are in in the first place…..

We hope that the lesson has been learnt and ask the business world at large: So how exactly are you delighting your customers today?

Being the first woman on the sales-force was a daunting yet pleasantly challenging task. It would have been easy to worry and focus on the obvious differences I had from my colleagues, yet I chose to just get down to hard graft and prove that I could be as good as any of them, and still be a woman.

My strategy worked. I was embraced by the team, who recognised that the: 8:30 am – 3:00 am work-day was hard even for the hardiest of sales-men; yet I performed it without a squeak. I was diligent and focused, soaking in every second of mentoring I could from my colleagues. Each one had a specialty, and I would observe and try to assimilate the best of each.

The reason I recall this really professionally tough but wonderful, learning-wise, period is because I was able to appreciate the hard work involved in brand-building from the grass-roots. Whilst I had earned a distinction in my MSc in International Marketing, ivory-tower strategy setting, I learnt, was folly. A great example which I will never forget was a 50-page questionnaire that we were expected to take our customers through to find out their views on various areas relating to the products and to the brands. As anyone has ever entered a restaurant when preparing for service may appreciate, the hospitality trade is highly stressful with little time to spare for managing their own business, let alone their suppliers’. When I was not-so-kindly told to F… Off (some in the trade are not mindful of manners either), I was shocked. However, the irony is, I could not blame the customer. I would have said / done the same thing.

Interestingly, when I prepared a full report for senior management on my experiences on the on-trade and strategies for optimising the sales-force and streamline brand-building with really innovative ideas generated from the grass-roots, the report was deemed by some as a series of anecdotes and nothing more.

I was once again shocked and horrified – this time very negatively, by the culture of the organisation. Instead of trying to understand why these strategies were considered important, they were waved off as “fluff”. It is no wonder that this organisation does not exist any more, falling prey to acquisition by a bigger player and divesting brands and non-profitable business units.

Throughout my career, I have always remembered this experience and when someone came to me with an idea or a new way of doing this, I would always listen. Why?

• Innovation in business stems from individuals being given the freedom to take the liberty of suggestion. Google knows this all too well.

• Listening is the greatest part of communication; if the other feels they are genuinely heard, then they feel that their contribution to the business or cause is positive – they feel that they are bringing something to the table

• Leadership is about enabling others bloom – if that senior management had allowed me to implement with passion something that I knew would make the difference to building brands, they would have been able to bask in the glory of success. Unfortunately, most often the “not from here” syndrome takes over (as in my case), belittling others’ hard work and ignoring it all together is common. Who has the last say, however? Your employee – you have invested significant sums to train them, and they can just walk (as I did, I consequently took my learning and left the organisation altogether).

• One small change, can lead to great market shifts. Entrepreneurs know that being nimble and tweaking their product or service allows them to tap into markets that they may not have considered before.

• Bottoms-up market innovation: As with my experience, traditional companies have a top-to-bottom approach to innovation and management. In theory, senior management have the most experience and so have more authority to set the vision. However, I would argue that a bottom-up approach is more effective: the grass-roots employees have a direct line to customers, hear the complaints, see the response to marketing and sales activities. This needs to be mixed in with the in-depth experience from senior management to make innovation cocktail a reality.

Finally, you may have noticed a lot about this article relates to “feelings” – feeling heard, appreciated, making a difference; engaging employees to be passionate and real advocates for what they do and where they work… Ironically, this is all about a feelings-based-business. So while we may talk about productivity in metrics, what makes the quotient rise are not numbers; it is the behaviours, the stories of the business, the subtle signals of encouragement that make the difference.

So, how will you create your innovation cocktail in your business?

This is a time when large corporates should learn from the lessons that small business can share. I can personally recount a time in my life when my previous entrepreneurial venture had its days numbered, that my staff gave me 150%. Numerous stories exist, movies have been filmed of the super-human effort of all employees, owners, suppliers alike to save a fighting cause. Far from Hollywood, however, sometimes the ship does sink in the end. Despite the immense efforts, new ideas tried, products sold it sometimes is not enough.

As the person who lost the most in that venture (3 years of pain, tears and not to mention endless pots of money raised on re-mortgages and credit cards), I take the memory of my staff working round the clock to try and redress the situation. At one time, one of my staff did not want to leave the premises to attend to her mother who had just been hospitalised with heart issues because she felt guilty of leaving – she had developed such a strong sense of duty to “do her bit” that she did not want to leave. I had to gently push her out the door….

I was shocked, and, at the same time moved. What had I done to deserve such loyalty, such care, so that my employees were so devoted to and attached to the business?

I had done just that: I had given them faith and something to believe in. I had given them the belief that they could really be instructive in turning things around. I gave them freedom to try new things – at the end of the day, it would not have hurt to try, would it? I had also been very open with them about the situation. I did not choose to hide behind the veil of hope. I kept them informed of the status quo, and that we were running on empty. Money was tight (that is what ultimately killed the business), so we could not spend a penny more. And perhaps it was this combination of events that really made the difference.

So, here is a note to large businesses out there. As you are cutting R and D budgets (according to the Financial Times, in 2008 the total R&D expenditures of S&P 500 companies, based on the approximately 200 companies that report them quarterly, declined 13 per cent – from a total of $43.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $37.4bn in the third quarter of 2008), consider the following lessons from a faltering business which experience the ultimate engagement levels from its employees:

• Give faith: give each one of your employees the knowledge that they can make each make a difference to the business’ future, that they have been selected and trained because they have the capability to make things happen
• Empower: enable them to take their own decisions, remind them that they are accountable for them. When people are treated like adults, they behave like adults (it is only in an environment reminiscent of a playground that they behave like children)
• Enable freedom: give them the wings to try what they think is the best approach to solving a problem without fear of reprisal nor criticism
• Be transparent: openly communicate the challenges and state what may happen if there is no turn-around. Honesty will be appreciated and results will ensue
• Foster creativity: your employees are on the “shop floor”. They know what needs fixing and can suggest ways that would make a difference to them and the business. Support avenues of creativity whereby departments collaborate on resolving processes, communication blockages or new customer propositions. Listen to them.

These days no business large or small is immune to the challenges of the credit crunch. However increasing employee morale and achieving workforce engagement to as close as 100% as possible can really make the difference when the chips are down. Act now, before it is too late.