By Donna Lopiano
The Business Model is a Reflection of the Male Model of Sport
Women Without Sports Experience Are Disadvantaged in the Work Setting
The existing American business model is a male model of organizational structure and human relationships. Males learn the rules of human organizations and interactions from sport. Sport is one of the most important socio-cultural learning environments in our society and, until quite recently, has been reserved for boys and men.
This is not to say that the male model of business or organizations is the preferred model. In fact, women are bringing new strengths to business and organizations that are based on their skills in group process, preference for cooperation models and sensitivity to human needs. Eventually, as women rise to executive positions, the organizational models of business will reflect more female characteristics and become androgynous.
Right now however, women who don't know the written and unwritten rules of sport are at a disadvantage in understanding business models of organization based on sport. How important is it that our daughters learn the same rules as our sons? It's critical. The most important of those rules are:
1. Teams are chosen based on people's strengths and competencies rather than who is liked or disliked.
This seems like such a simple concept, yet women have traditionally learned to pick their friends and emphasize human relationships rather than skill competencies.
2. Successful players are skilled in practicing the illusion of confidence. Boys are taught at an early age and through their participation in sport that it is not acceptable to show fear. When you get up to bat or play any game, it is important to act confident and not to let your teammates know you are afraid, nervous or have a weakness -- even if you are not confident. Employees who are skilled at practicing the illusion of confidence -- calmness under pressure, acting sure of self and abilities, etc. -- get to play the most important positions and are more likely to be starters. People who are practicing the illusion of confidence make everything look easy and don't need constant reinforcement or support.
3. Errors are expected of people who are trying to do new things. The most important thing is never make the same mistake twice.
Errors are acknowledged immediately by each player and players are expected to fix their errors and not dwell on them or take criticism of errors personally. During a game is not the time to have a long conversation about what you should do or how you might correct an error. That is something you do during practice before or after the game.
4. Loyalty to your teammates is very important.
Many women don't understand it when a man who is not doing his job is protected rather than dismissed. Boys learn from sports that every person on the team has a role to play. Even the players who sit the bench are positive forces on the team as long as they are good sports and encourage teammates who play. Players who are satisfied sitting the bench and waiting their turn to play are valued because they promote team harmony by not complaining. Not everyone can be successful players. Few men will criticize their teammates. They will always promote the strength of their teammates and not mention weaknesses. Women who don't play sports are much more critical of each other and much more likely to point out a teammates' weaknesses if asked to do so. When women do this in business organizations, they are perceived as disloyal.
This is not to say that we must tolerate incompetence. What is important is how we do it. If we have an incompetent employee, then good teammates need to find a position he or she can play or trade that player to another team. This means that we need to help relocate employees we no longer wish to keep.
5. "I will" equals "I can"
Boys playing sports are taught that being "good at a position" is a function of the will to achieve and working on the basic skills required for that position. They also learn that you need to play the position in order to become adept at that position. Thus, boys grow up thinking that they can achieve anything they commit themselves to achieving. It is not an inflated ego or an accident that men apply for jobs for which we may think them underqualified. It is simply that they have been trained to believe that they "can" meet a new challenge of a new position and can learn by doing. Women, on the other hand, believe that advancing to a new position requires certification, classroom training, degrees or something tangible that says "I am qualified," in addition to being confident that they can meet the demands of a new position. If they haven't played sports, they haven't had as much experience with the trial-and-error methhod of learning new skills and positions, and are less likely to be as confident as their male counterparts about trying something new.
6. In a hierarchical organization, your boss (the head coach) gives the orders and the employees (players) follow the head coach's instructions. Men's organizations are very hierarchical in nature. When playing the game in the business setting, the coach is all powerful and players follow orders. If a player has a better idea, he or she gets to the coach in an informal setting and persuades the coach to consider that idea. The idea then becomes the coach's idea and is carried into the business setting.
Women's organizations are more decentralized and collegial. Women are much more likely to bring a group together, ask everyone to present their ideas and then come up with an idea or direction that has the support of the majority of the group. It may be unrealistic to expect organizations led by men who have been trained in hierarchical organizations to adopt problem-solving or decision-making models preferred by women. It may be equally unrealistic to expect your coach to understand when you speak up to disagree during team meetings.
It is important for our sons and daughters to learn about the differences in how men and women create different decision-making and problem-solving organizations, and how to operate successfully in each environment.
7. Winning and Losing Has Nothing to Do With Your Worth as a Person.
In sports and in organizations, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Sport gives you experience so you learn to win graciously and accept defeat without blowing the experience out of proportion. You learn to separate the outcome of a game or your performance in one game from your worth as a person. A bad practice does not make you a bad person. This is a critically important lesson for all workers.
8. Pressure, Deadlines and Competition Are Fun.
In sports and in organizations, pressure, deadlines and competition are commonplace. Sport gives players the experience of dealing with these realities and learning to enjoy and conquer their challenges. When there are only two seconds left on the clock, your team is one point down, and you go up for the jump shot, you learn what pressure, deadlines and competition is all about and how they can be perceived as exhilarating and fun rather than scary and distasteful. The bottom line is that most organizations want to hire people who enjoy and excel in competitive environments. If we don't give sports to women, we don't allow them to learn how to handle these challenges.[html removed]
9. When You Are Too Tired To Take One More Step, You Know You Can Ultimately, participation in sports teaches players all about the work ethic: that hard work, repetition, and constant practice, are the keys to successful performance. Athletes know that no matter how tired they are, they can tap into a reservoir of stamina, strength and good thinking -- even under the most difficult of circumstances - and continue to compete successfully.
10. Perfection is Sequential Attention to Detail
In sports and in business, being exceptional is leaving no detail unattended to. Every athlete has a precise checklist of details involved in every skill from throwing a curve ball to shooting a jumpshot. The more you study your opponent and prepare for a game, the more successful you are. Every great player is a student of their game and great students are always learning.
Using Sports To Be More Effective in Business
Using sport as an important social setting to conduct business may be a critical asset for women trying to advance in today's organizational models of business. There are three basic ways to use your knowledge of sport to advance your business effectiveness.
1. "Breaking the Ice" with a new business contact
People are more likely to do business with people who they perceive have the same values and interests. One of the reasons why minority groups have such trouble receiving a fair shake in employment decisions is simply because people unknowingly feel more comfortable being with other people who are just like them. White males are more likely to hire other white males than African-American men or women. We are afraid of people and situations we are not familiar with or don't understand. When we have a chance to interact in a social setting with people who are not like us, we have the opportunity to discover common values and interests thereby defining our sameness rather than differences. When we do this, we are much more open and comfortable playing and doing business with each other.
A good way for women to begin a business meeting with men or others they don't know is to ask that person if they participate in sports or fitness. Successful businesspeople are often active in sports and fitness activities. When the person replies in the affirmative and begins talking about their sport or fitness interest, there is an immediate assumption that you and your associate have something in common -- even if the other person is doing all the talking and you do not play their sport. What you have done is simply chosen a common human activity as a basis of similarity and tossed it out there as a possible common value. Sport is a common denominator even if you like different activities. As such, it is a potent area of common values.
2. Being accepted as a member of the team
Talk around the coffee pot or water cooler in the morning or at the conference table before a meeting is another opportunity for women to find common ground and common values with the people they work with every day and people who may be responsible for their promotions or assignments. Doing a simply thing like reading the headlines on the sports pages every morning and commenting about the home team's win or loss the previous evening makes you a part of the comraderie surrounding sports. Men have been raised to believe that sport is important and to have favorite teams. When you enter into a conversation about something they value, you create an area of perceived common interest. You are more likely to be readily accepted as a teammate and someone that understands working with men. You are more likely to be considered "one of the boys".
3. Using sport to get quality time with your boss or customers
The attention span of decision-makers in the office setting is very limited. Meetings are often broken into pieces by phone calls and other interruptions. Decision-makers may be trying to attend to the requirements of the next or previous meetings. It is often very difficult to create quality time during the work day. Being with a boss or customer on the golf course is an incredible opportunity. Having four hours of time with no phone calls or other people walking into your relationship with an important business associate can provide a critical advantage -- even if you don't talk business. At the end of a round of golf, chances are that your social conversation alone has been extensive enough for all players to know common interests and values. In fact, it may be more important for you to engage in this non-business conversation and to find this common ground that is the basis for a successful long-term relationship than to get into a business conversation right away. Many people who play golf for business don't "do business" until they are finished playing the game and stop for a drink following the round.
Why Women's Participation in Sport and Fitness is Important
Sports is too important for our physical, psychological and sociological well-being to have it only benefit boys and men:
o High school girls who play sports are less likely to be involved in an unwanted pregnancy; more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports
o As little as four hours of exercise a week may reduce a teenage girl's risk of breast cancer by up to 60%; breast cancer is a disease that afflicts one out of every eight American women.
o One out of every two women over the age of 60 suffers from osteoporosis (brittle bones). None of us should want our daughters to repeat the experiences of generations of women -- our mothers and grandmothers -- who were not permitted to play sports or encouraged to participate in weight-bearing exercises that are necessary to establishing bone mass.
o Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self esteem and lower levels of depression.
o Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports.
o Sport is where boys have traditionally learned about teamwork, goal-setting, the pursuit of excellence in performance and other achievement-oriented behaviors -- critical skills necessary for success in the workplace. In an economic environment where the quality of our children's lives will be dependent on two-income families, our daughters cannot be less prepared for the highly competitive workplace than our sons. It is no accident that 80% of the female executives at Fortune 500 companies identified themselves as former ""tomboys"" - having played sports.
The Bottom Line: Be Fit and Consider Golf as A Business Requirement
Successful women lead active lifestyles. They participation in sports and fitness to insure good health and to give themselves a business advantage.
Women often find it difficult to engage in sport due to the time demands of job and family and the fact that sport activities often involve other players -- the people you play with or against. The smart woman therefore selects an activity she can do when she has time and makes that activity a regular part of her life.
You don't need a be a member of a health club to be fit. A simple decision to use stairs instead of elevators, to walk to work or to park your car where you have to walk a good distance to work or shopping or to start every morning with 25-50 situps in bed and leg lifts is a decision to keep fit so that you will be in shape to do sport when you have the time to engage in this activity. In the case of golf, practicing at the driving range or swinging your club 100 times a day a home will go a long way toward keeping you fit for this activity of choice.
If you are not already involved in golf, here are several suggestions that will help you enjoy the game:
1. Treat yourself to lessons with a professional golf instructor. We are much more confident and comfortable in sport when we have a minimum level of skill and know what we are doing.
2. Understand the rules and etiquette of golf. Being a courteous and knowledgable player is more important than how good you are. Have a friend who is a member of a golf club or your golf pro walk you through your first experience on the course from parking lot to bag drop to signing in to playing a round and knowing your way around the clubhouse and tipping. Not understanding the rules will give the impression that you don't respect the people you play with or the game.
3. Have friends take you out to play until you feel comfortable enough to use golf to entertain on your own.
4. If you have trouble making time for yourself, force yourself to play by joining an executive women's golf league. You will be glad you did. League play experience is important because you will find yourself involved in golf tournaments when you go to business meetings. Tournaments have different formats than a regular game of golf with a foursome.
5. Subscribe to a golf magazine. Golf for Women is a magazine that is just for women. It has a lot of helpful information on improving your game (call 1-800-374-7941).