Diversity Training Program by CareerSoar

Diversity Training from a Gender Perspective

The world is a very diverse place in which to live. There are issues of culture, color, age, religion, politics, and interests. Everyone must deal with gender. Gender segregation is neither desirable nor realistic in today’s world. Men and women working together at all levels of society must communicate with each other as effectively as possible. Otherwise, the best intentions of each gender can and will be misinterpreted to the detriment of all parties in the communication process. Men and women’s “appropriate” behavior is based on two separate sets of cultural rules. Learning the cultural differences, which define what is “right” for men and women, is the first step leading to meaningful inter-gender communication.

Men and women have radically different ideas of what it means to be a team player and their meeting behaviors are different. For men, the meeting often doesn’t happen in the meeting and women may not know this. When women talk, they often use disclaimers, hedges and tag questions in their linguistic behavior, which can backfire when talking to men. Non-verbal communications is often different between the two genders and misunderstood. For example, when women nod it means, “I hear you” while men nod they are in agreement.

As in real life, we may know the logic and rationale behind our own behaviors but others may see us differently, and, more importantly, may significantly misread what we’re intending to communicate. Also, men and women have learned to approach their problems and they manage their employees’ situations differently.

Gender Diversity Training Workshop Purpose and Format

This one-day interactive workshop is designed for all levels of an organization, based on the research of Dr. Pat Heim, employing a series of lectures, videos, case exercises and games to help men and women communicate more effectively as they learn to understand the cultural differences unique to each gender. Utilizing these concepts will promote performance, productivity and greater profitability for employees and their organization.

Gender Diversity Training Workshop Objectives

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

Describe how we were taught as children to be “appropriate” adults.
Describe the lessons of the other gender and how behaviors are often seen as problematic.
Explain the different ways men and women speak and how it can be misread.
Identify nonverbal barriers due to gender differences.
Identify the different leadership styles men and women use and how the styles are most effectively implemented.
Describe how men and women define “team work” and team player” differently.

For more information about this program, or to learn more about how this material can be presented within your organization, contact us at (845) 790-5229, or e-mail us at corporateservices@careersoar.com.