<div><em>Gender diversity initiatives are among the top priorities of leading organizations, writes <strong>Dr Niru Kumar</strong></em></div><div> </div><div>Twelve years back I began my journey of studying gender differences under the mentorship of Dr John Gray, author of Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Right after being trained by John Gray and being certified as a Mars Venus coach I started feeling like a celebrity of sorts. As soon as people would get to know about my Mars Venus connection I would have their wholehearted attention. At parties I found myself getting a lot of limelight. TV channels wanted me to appear on their shows. All this because I might be more approachable than Dr John Gray himself and I may have some answers to their tough luck with the opposite gender! People would laugh and cry at the same time when I spoke about the differences.</div><div> </div><div>Things like how women shift from one topic to another to another all in the span of 10 minutes, which have the men totally confused and frustrated and how women hate men for quick unwanted solutions when all they wanted to do was just share.</div><div>Everybody has gender challenges!</div><div><table align="right" border="2" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 200px;"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Niru-mdm.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 200px;"></td></tr><tr><td><em>Dr Niru Kumar</em></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div>However, I got this fantastic attention only in personal forums. Organizations were not ready for this conversation. It was labelled as “soft skills" and took lot of convincing to make a few start thinking about the business case. Today however it is a different story.</div><div> </div><div>Gender diversity initiatives are among the top priorities of leading organizations. All are in the race of whose moving faster and doing more in this arena.</div><div> </div><div>Liberal budgets are allocated, top trainers are handpicked, trainings are made mandatory, online forums are buzzing, street plays and lots more.</div><div> </div><div>Then what is still pulling it down? Is it leaders, or men or women themselves? Perhaps all three.</div><div> </div><div>So here I was doing a workshop with a CEO of company and his direct reports. Only one lady was participating among 15 men which itself was a clear reflection on the actual situation.</div><div> </div><div>A short while down the training day we were assessing the concerned company’s present standing on the gender diversity front. Everybody voiced their views and eventually I gave my subjective evaluation which was a 2.5/5 whilst theirs was averaging a 4/5.</div><div> </div><div>Expressions were not to happy when I share my rating. One person in a slightly annoyed tone said, “We have reached a 20% isn’t that all right?" I then asked them to reflect on senior leadership ratios, which turned out to be a bare 3%.</div><div>The “isn’t that all right” question in that senior a team reflected the thought process of many.</div><div> </div><div>Five years back many men, women and leaders were forthright in their disagreement on the “big deal” on gender diversity. Today it is embarrassing to say it out but has the internal mindset changed? Perhaps not if we think 20% is all right.</div><div> </div><div>Here are some gravitational factors, which are still pulling the gender breakthrough projects down:</div><div> </div><ul><li>Fear of stereotyping</li><li>Inherent competitive nature of men</li><li>Lack of women speaking up out of fear of sounding complaining</li><li>Not enough male sponsors</li><li>Lack of mentors and trainers who can help organizations take a deep dive into the actual nuances</li><li>Making it a numbers game only and not paying enough attention to gender intelligence </li></ul><div> </div><div>Gender intelligence is an intelligence that understands the science in the brain and behavioural differences in men and women. It goes beyond treated both genders as equal. It is understanding, respecting and leveraging those differences for greater personal and professional success.</div><div> </div><div>To keep up with the pace of the Market Leaders Gender Intelligence has to be deeply studied and authentically practiced with a sense of urgency.</div>
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