Small business agony uncle: James Caan
I met you at a business skills show last year and was greatly motivated by your words of honesty. My question is: how important is it to you to have a mix of men and women in your team?
Kyranjeet Sanghera
My immediate reaction to this included every assertive adjective you can imagine; critical, extremely, exceptionally — the list goes on.
Of all the businesses I have run in the past 30 years, there is no question that the only way to ensure a dynamic working environment is to balance the sexes. I have seen equal successes in both women and men who have done outstandingly well in the work place and I think if you have one sex predominating in a team, you’re missing out on the benefits of the other, which puts your business at a major disadvantage.
Having a male or female-dominated working environment, to me, means you’re missing a trick — diversity brings together varied perspectives, produces a holistic analysis of the issues an organisation faces and spurs greater effort, leading to improved decision-making. I’ve found that different people are driven by a variety of things and, of course, will have their own way of thinking.
In 1992, the American author and relationship counsellor John Gray’s book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, was published and it quickly became a popular saying. I have noticed women tend to play more nurturing roles making them great team players as they are able to see the bigger picture and take into consideration emotional mentality, more so than men who sometimes adopt a very “straight to the point” kind of vision.
Ultimately, every team needs different skills and attributes to bring to the table — if everyone in the team had the same mentality you’d never get anywhere.
They
were born in India, and achieved fame, glory and success in other parts
of the world. Which is why we decided to call them the Global Indian
Women (GIW) — their influence measured by big data research firm
MavenMagnet, which began with a long list of 60 women, all born in India
and making waves outside it (see How We Did It below for more details
on the methodology).
These women earned their spurs across countries — from the United Arab Emirates to, inevitably, the US — but one thi ..
These women earned their spurs across countries — from the United Arab Emirates to, inevitably, the US — but one thi ..
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