It's happened again. Nancy, the lone woman on Project Team X, is at every meeting. She's full of ideas for improving the process but they don't get a warm reception. Today she spoke up with a minor change in workflow priority. Her research proved the suggestion would shorten turn time by 25%.
"Thanks," said Bill looking around the room. "Any other ideas?"
Five minutes later, Peter makes Nancy's suggestion on his own with a smart "Let's start immediately!" tacked on.
"Great idea," Bill said. "I'm gonna go ahead and say let's try it for 30 days and see the impact. Way to go, Peter!"
Discussion
These men don't "get it," right?
Not necessarily. Bill could be unaware that he resists women's leadership. Sure it's possible that Bill is a fool, but it's also possible that he just didn't understand the change Nancy suggested. Lay these things aside and ask yourself as their manager, "What could I have done better?"
Tell Bill directly the impact his meeting style had on Nancy. He may never have considered he was doing it. And he may not have thought about how he'd like it were the situation reversed.
Now think ahead: was Nancy the only woman you could possibly put on the team? Could another female have done as effective a job as one of the men, so as to change the perception of disparity? You need to be intentional about getting more persons involved in each team situation. If it was a team of all women and one man, the man might feel the same way.
Evaluate whether or not one woman on an important project management team reflects the ratio of women to men in your office generally. Chances are you have a large number of women in your office; so is there something that could be done to make projects "look more like your company?"
Hold a meeting with the group to review what are the company expectations for treatment of co-workers. What were the meeting ground rules at the time the project was assigned? If there are none, write a set of ground rules and commitments all team members will agree to before the next meeting.
Here's an example:
Time
One person speaks at a time
Breathe
Communicate in a balanced way
Stay on Subject
Use language that supports each other's views first
Listen as if the person is your client (would you ignore a client who is a woman?)
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