The pitch: It's what you say, and the way you say it

By JENEAL ROHRBACK*

Successful agency advertisers take the high ground when talking about communicating with people.

They pride themselves on knowing their markets inside and out - their attitudes, their dreams, their fears and insecurities, even what trends they'll fall into next.

But do we really know how to communicate when communication within our own business is flawed?

Men and women have fundamental differences in their values and styles of workplace communication.

For instance, women like to talk. And talk. And talk. The more detail the better. This is the way they gather their information and come to their final solution. They like to think out loud.

Men are less likely to talk and collaborate with others.

Collaboration to them means "everyone stay out of my way, I'm on to it".

They like to process their information and solution before they speak.

Women are more emotional and can use exaggerated language and stories to make their point. Women also thrive on making people feel included.

Men just make their point, sometimes with a blunt, no-frills approach. And they enjoy challenging others through banter, jokes and contentious comments.

Two virtually opposite ways of finding solutions.

These differences cause great friction and problems between the sexes in the work place.

But, more to the point, they go against everything the advertising business is about - connecting and communicating with people. If we are not getting on in the agencies and don't understand what makes each other tick, how can we communicate effectively to the general public?

A lot of what I've talked about has to do with cultures, the way we were brought up and ultimately, the way men and women have evolved over thousands of years.

Our brains are wired differently.

And unfortunately it's going to take thousands of years to until we evolve into something different. Something better.

Let's just try to make the process a bit quicker.

With more than 15 years in the advertising business, my understanding of gender differences in the workplace has evolved slowly (and sometimes painfully), but to a level where I can now use these insights to a business advantage.

For example, I have used the male style of being brutally direct and getting to the point in a crisis when I needed answers quickly.

But if I needed help with building rapport, establishing and repairing relationships, then the female style was usually my best bet.

From my experience, men and women using both styles in the appropriate situations have attained, expanded and even saved client accounts.

To have a truly successful agency, we need to start understanding and exploiting the differences between these styles. Stop relying on our natural responses, indeed put them to one side in certain circumstances, and start to observe and respect the opposite style of thinking and communicating.

This is tough, but with practice we will start to build healthier agency cultures that reflect the real world.

This can only result in serving our customers better.

* Jeneal Rohrback is an advertising consultant and former creative director at DDB.