Many women work in men's groups and know firsthand how difficult it is to prove to men their professionalism in order to build a career and achieve the long-awaited increase. Men often consider themselves and their male colleagues to be smarter, more competent, more efficient, and categorically do not want to notice that women colleagues absolutely do not concede to them.
At work, women least want to do business in this way, constantly feeling the latent hostility from their colleagues. Nevertheless, there are a number of techniques that will help turn your male colleagues from opponents into allies:
1. Show less emotion.
Men do not tolerate "unnecessary" emotions in their eyes, especially in the workplace. In addition, a woman who often demonstrates them, they consider a hysterical woman. In order not to damage your business reputation, be reasonable, do not react to attacks in your direction. For example, if you think that you were insulted, count to twenty, talk to the abuser in quiet intonations, pausing. Whatever happens, do not cry, such a scene of a male colleague will be remembered forever.
2. Demonstrate your mind in moderate doses.
Men respect smart women, but most of them do not like them, it negatively affects men's self-esteem. Therefore, if you want a good attitude toward yourself in a male team, mind is extremely modest so that colleagues appreciate you, but also had no reason to be afraid. Any of your advice, even if very relevant, men perceive with a share of the negative. For the same reason, a man who perceives you as a rival will most likely not share his experience with you, so that you will not be smarter than him.
3. Learn to listen.
A woman in a man's team needs to learn to listen more, in order to have time to hear and understand the thoughts of their male colleagues, to analyze and remember them. If you understand who is who in the men's team, you can find an individual approach to each of them.
4. Do not let your responsiveness work.
It is known that women are very responsive and are often trouble-free in relation to "helpless" men. In turn, men use this, addressing with different requests and tasks, which they themselves do not want to fulfill or are lazy. As a result, for a woman this can result in exploitation, and she will brew coffee every day, wash cups or make boring records for the whole team. Learn to calmly respond to a refusal to a request that does not meet your wishes.
5. Connect your charm.
Charm is a unique weapon that every woman has, but in a working environment it should be used in a special way. Beautiful clothes, make-up and gait "from the hip" will not help increase your credibility among male colleagues, because in a working environment they tend to see in you not so much a woman as a professional, and these tricks may not even notice.
It is better to use such components of charm as good manners, sense of humor, the ability to adequately carry oneself in society and demonstrate self-confidence.
6. Be wary of flirting in the workplace.
Some men in the career struggle against women use flirting. They know that a woman, feeling more attractive, unconsciously responds to attention. In this situation, she loses vigilance, and the man easily uses this, for example, appropriates to himself recklessly expressed aloud standing ideas. And those men whose flirting attempts were ignored, may be offended, and try to get even with you on occasion. Therefore, treat flirting in the workplace very carefully.
7. Do not gossip and do not raise "female" topics in the conversation.
Talking with colleagues during breaks or lunch breaks, of course, you can talk not only about work, however, exclude from the conversations "women's" topics: about cooking and other household chores, about your own and others' personal lives, about health and makeup. Remember, male colleagues do not perceive you only as a friend (even if the team has developed a warm relationship), they always evaluate your professional qualities. You do not want to be considered a gossip, and do not trust serious business.
8. Be a professional, constantly learn and upgrade.
A woman who works in a male (and any other) team will not be hindered from having profound knowledge of the specialty, professionally growing, developing and improving. Even a hostile team appreciates true professionalism and will gradually begin to respect you as a valuable employee.
So, a woman working in a men's team needs to learn a lot: to defend one's own interests, not to demonstrate weaknesses, to build healthy business relations with colleagues and to be responsible for their professional and career growth. In this case, she can not only neutralize the opponent's colleague, but also turn him into a friend at work or even in his admirer.