That said, I think your primary responsibility is to be a good boss and highlight the successes of everyone who reports to you—men and women. You don’t want to be labeled one of the girls. Because you aren’t just one of the girls, right? You are a professional, and the most successful leaders I know recognize the value of all of their employees.
Millennial Perspective: Traci Tsai
The short answer? Only if they deserve it.
I understand the motivation for the question; the business world of old favored men, so as a successful businesswoman, you want to ensure opportunities and recognition for businesswomen of future generations. However, if you begin to mentor and praise your female reports more heavily than their male counterparts when they haven’t earned it, you will be committing the same crime of bias in a different way.
You should mentor and praise all your best employees based on their performances. As soon as you start praising your female employees for achievements for which you would not praise your male employees, you have lowered the bar for those women and you have created feelings of inequity among the male members of your staff. You are actually limiting the initiative and drive of all your team members, reducing the overall quality of work from your team. The females on your team may come to expect praise for lower quality work and the men may lose their desire to produce out of pure frustration. The intentions may be right, but the action would be counterproductive on a number of levels.
Gen@Work is a monthly column looking at career through the prism of generation. If you have a question for our Gen@Work panel, please send it in care of the editor at cwilbert@realgirlsmedia.com. Never miss a Gen@Work column again. Just click on the author’s name at the top of the story, then select “Be notified when writer publishes” at the top of the page. We’ll send you an email as soon as a new column is published.
Check out Marilynn’s blog Baby Boomer Insights.
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