What should I do if I encounter a man who treats me disrespectfully or doesn’t take me seriously as a business owner, just because I am a woman?

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Pattie Simone
Posted 9 months ago

Happily, most male, and female, associates and business leaders pursue appropriate behavior. But for those times they don’t, here are some tips that’ll help you counteract, avoid or effectively deal with some of the most pernicious offenders, including toilet humor, macho swaggering and sexually charged interactions.

Recognise that preparedness is half the battle. Whether it’s in the form of an e-mail or during a water-cooler chat, if you’re at the ready with an on-point remark that deals with the discussion at hand, not necessarily the actual remark that was made, you’ll score major points for presence under pressure.

Try not to take it personally. Instead of getting ruffled feathers, stay focused and forward thinking. Count to 10, put a smile on your face and move on. Try to devote your energy to what you need to do during the meeting or networking event, voicing your frustrations to a trusted peer after the fact. If the offender is a colleague, vendor or client, you might want to consider discussing the situation later on, in private, to avoid a repeat offense. Silence is sometimes the most effective weapon. Cloddish behavior will always be around, no matter how far up the ladder you go. By not creating a scene, you can actually win. I’ve found that silence can be deadly for the erring party. Take charge. Since you’re running your own show, you can choose whom to do business with and whom to circumvent entirely. For me, one of the joys of running my own business is that I can now avoid individuals and environments where inappropriate sexist comments are made.

Inform the clueless as necessary. Lots of times words tumble out before the person considers their potential impact. While, sadly, sometimes this is done on purpose, there are scads of situations when it’s an accident. When you find you need to deal with inappropriate behavior or comments, approach things directly and swiftly, and with tact.
One example of how to begin this conversation could be, “I wasn’t comfortable about the way things went at the meeting. I’d like to talk to you about we can work together in a constructive way, to our mutual benefit.” Or try, “I’d like to talk about what happened a few days ago. It was an uncomfortable situation for me. I’d like to hear your side and see how we can work through this.”

Whether you do business across the globe or in your own hometown, part of your success depends on your ability to communicate around potentially uncomfortable verbal and written encounters. Use these tips and practice your approach, staying true to your own comfort zone, and you can improve the odds of winning in any communications scenario

Lorna_Powe_facebook
Posted 9 months ago

A key thing to remember when this happens is that you are likely to be in a situation where your emotion goes up, when this happens very often our intelligence goes down and we don’t handle the situations… I treat these situations as an objection. When some one objects you need to first acknowledged what they say and then ask them a question. An acknowledgement can be – thank you or I hear what you are saying, then the question should be an open one such as “what makes you think that’ – you will then through this approach get to the bottom of why they said what they did. If this is something that happens frequently I would advocate practicing handling the objection. Ideally with a partner or friend who would throw a comment at you and then you would practice the response.

If that sounds silly to you remember that all those people at the top of their game have practiced and practiced in order to get there. Along the way they will have made mistakes, and through doing so learned and got up and tried and practiced again.

Don’t let you “Little Voice” or subconscious mind get the better of you and tell you you cannot do it!

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