Research Paper: Mars And Venus – Coaching Perspective

Research Paper By Gayatri Krishnamurthy
(Executive Coaching, INDIA)

Introduction

Women are indeed from Venus. Men are from a place other than Venus. I was in Las Vegas and I went to watch the immensely brilliant show by Penn and Teller. Before the show began, audience members were encouraged to go up on stage and sign an envelope and view and examine a box kept on stage. Men, women and children flocked to the stage. There were 2 flights of steps with an usher each by the side. Children hardly noticed the usher. All men sidestepped the usher’s extended hand and walked down on their own. 95% of women took the usher’s hand as they came down the steps. I was also noting whether there were any differences like stilettos, health, bulk etc which distinguished these women. That was not the case. So whether or not a woman needs help, she will feel obliged to hold an extended hand.  This and many other observations made me curious  about  the  popularly  perceived  associations  between  gender  and coaching style  as  well as  client  behaviours.   This  could be  helpful in  both positioning the coach’s offerings as well as in selecting an appropriate coach.

Sheena Iyengar, now the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School conducted a multiyear study with the economists Raymond Fisman, Emir Kamenica, and Itamar Simonson to determine what men and women desire in a mate. Among other things, the experiments revealed that women of all races strongly prefer a romantic partner of the same race and that women place more emphasis on a mate’s intelligence, while men tend to favour physical attractiveness

Executive coaching seems to be an equal opportunity industry. Both men and women thrive in a coaching career

Objective

1. Find out if there are gender based differences in coaching profession.
2. Are these differences the same in India and in countries where coaching is a more mature profession.
3. What can be our learning from sociology and biology which would help us become better coaches?

Some of the aims of exploring the differences in approach and expectations are: 

• Understanding and constructive use of gender differences in working with clients
• A better understanding of and empathy for the career challenges our clients face;
• A greater potential for conversational rapport with our clients;
• Eliminate tendencies to assess our clients and structure the discussions based on our own gender style.

Methodology

Primary and  secondary data  from  books,  articles  and  existing  surveys  was scanned .Interview were done using a structured questionnaire. The survey was administered to  people  who  had  more  than  15  years  experience and  were exposed to the concept of coaching.   The data from all these sources were collectively analysed to look for significant trends.