Managing - April/May 2003

Working With Women

Managing relationships to grow your business

by Mardy Fones

The number of women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms, and most of these are small businesses. Between 1997 and 2002, these successful companies increased the dollar value of their sales by 40 percent and employed nearly 9.2 million workers, one-and-one-half times the national average, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.

Yet, women-owned businesses face unique challenges when it comes to women managing other women, says Susan Murphy, co-author with Pat Heim of In the Company of Women ? Turning Workplace Conflict Into Powerful Alliances (J. P. Tarcher, 2001).

"Women's workplace animosity toward other women is affirmative action's dirty little secret," says Murphy. "Because 53 percent of the U.S. workforce is female, it's an issue that can undermine productivity, accelerate turnover, erode service and drain a small business's bottom line."

Murphy talked to MyBusiness about how women can grow their businesses by effectively managing female employees.

Q. What is the edge that women bring to small business?

A. Women live in a web of relationships both at home and at work. For women, business isn't only about closing a deal; it's about opening a relationship. So much of business is based on relationships and the trust they engender. For women in business, working with people they like and trust is a priority.

Q. How can the woman business owner use that more intimate approach to business to her advantage with employees, especially other women?

A. Women are more open, comfortable and productive when they collaborate. A study at Emory University found when women cooperate on an activity, the same part of their brains is activated as when food or money is involved. In essence, cooperation is, in part, its own reward. It isn't coincidental that that same concept is the key to operating a successful small business.

Q. If collaboration is important to women, why is it that women bosses and their female employees are so often at odds?

A. When problems occur, there's usually a specific reason ? the balance of power between two women is perceived as being weighted too heavily in one woman's favor. Everyone with whom you interact keeps a chip book on you. All day, you are gaining and losing chips with others. For women, chip acquisition occurs in many ways ? small talk, sharing intimacies, providing opportunities to excel or to bask in the spotlight. The chip exchange is constantly balancing and rebalancing. The manager who is attentive to this balance ? whether with those who report to her, vendors or equals ? is the one whose small business will be a step ahead.

Q. How can that concept be applied to help a small business become more productive?

A. There are many ways to capitalize on the nature of women's inherent business skills. For instance, by drawing other women into the decision-making process and bouncing ideas off one another, by building consensus, by listening, by making requests, not demands, by setting clear standards and applying them equally to all, by minimizing over displays of power. Women want everyone to win. That's why a cohesive environment in a woman-run, small business is so important and can be so productive.