Organizational Gender: Know your organization’s sex

Companies are emotional or logical

Now some people are already wondering whether I am about to animate organizations; well you are close to the point but for the better part of it, I am about to show you the sex of your organization so that you can relate that with the drift you have experienced for the better part of the last five to ten years.

Let me begin this way: Men are from Mars, women are from Venus; where are hermaphrodites from? Jupiter?! Organizations and their leaders have for several years (though not all organizations are guilty) been either male or female. Ideally, as I would show you, organizations ought to be hermaphrodite. Males are genetically wired to think logically so they never really care about the soft topics like love and children. Females, on the other hand, are sculpted to behave, think and perceive emotionally; that is why they cry about what happened to someone they don’t even know his name. There are marked differences between males and females in how they think, how they behave and what matters most to them.

Now let’s take it to organizations.

Male organizations are logical in design. They are always mostly and consistently concerned and focused on logical matters like strategy, marketing, financial analysis, management and accounting. They are so logical that they cannot come to terms with the emotional matters that plague their existence. Truth is that even males have emotions; so giving no attention to emotional matters in the name of logic is stupidity and counter-productive in consequence. Male organizations are overly concerned about their stock value, their brand strength and their dominance in the marketplace. Their attention is locked on all the logical subjects. In simple terms, their only question is: how can we make more money?

Female organizations on the other hand have a firm grip on all matters of emotional standing. They are not in the forefront of the competition but they do have a deep concern about their brand image. Female organizations take time to really dig down into the matters of core values, core purpose and organizational health. They are the organizations that create incentives for their staff and vibrant initiatives for the local community. They pay a lot of attention to their brand image and perception; what people think about them and how they respond to them. Female organizations think a lot about succession and posterity. Soft issues matter most to them. Their only question: what do people think about us?

Organizations that are healthy are those that are hermaphrodite in design. They have a good grasp of the logical patterns of organizational development, and have built-in competence to achieve their corporate vision all the while paying adequate attention to gaining clarity about the soft issues like the core purpose of the organization, core values and team engineering and dynamics. Organizations like this are the ones that make up the built to last and good to great companies that Jim Collins wrote about. I have observed carefully and found that organizations really have sexes.

Several times, in consulting for enterprises, my team and I have asked the board of directors to individually write what the core values of the organization are. By this we mean the core values in practice, not the ones in the company profile document. More often than not, we have got differing answers in those answer sheets. How can the middle management staff and lower level personnel understand what the core values of the organization they work for are when the board of directors differs in their individual understanding? When we get to the place of core purpose, it is a sad story. In fact, the MD usually does not know what the core purpose is. He answers by telling me the vision of the organization. The core purpose of an organization is not the vision neither is it what they do; it is why they do what they do and why they want to achieve the vision they are pursuing. I cannot determine that for any organization, the founders must do that; I can only guide the process to identifying it. These soft issues are “irrelevant” to male organizations because they defy logic neither do they fit into the logic mould. Southwest Airlines is a truly hermaphrodite organization. They are deeply concerned about all the soft issues like their core values; one of which is a sense of humor. A dissatisfied customer once wrote to the CEO asking them to quit making jokes where safety is concerned. The CEO replied with just four words: We Will Miss You! She was asking them to violate their core values. Strategy on the other hand must be carried out through the lens of the core values. Southwest Airlines decides on strategy based on their core values and core purpose. If the strategy will raise the cost of flying, it is a wrong strategy. If it will make their people rigid and confined, it is a wrong strategy. That is a truly hermaphrodite organization. Harvard University is known for all the logical themes of business development but there is a soft hand when it comes to emotional issues. While Harvard lays a foundation for these soft issues, there is no hammer driving the nail into the hard bark. I would say that Harvard has successfully encouraged the evolution of more male organizations than hermaphrodite enterprises. This is not an accusation but a valid point being brought to the notice of Harvard Business School professors. Maybe a performance appraisal should precede the issuance of certificates to Harvard students to ascertain that they got the very essence of the principles that were taught. Core Values and Core Purpose are highly significant parts of enterprise development as much as strategy and marketing.

Patrick Lencioni spoke at the Global Leadership Summit about a day when he got home to find his wife crawling on her knees in the living room. When he asked her what she was doing, she replied, “I am looking for my earring; it fell in the room but the light is brighter out here.” Funny? Maybe it is. But that is what most CEOs do when they give all their attention to the logical aspect of their business and neglecting the emotional side. Issues of politics in the company have nothing to do with business strategy, as well as conflicts between staff have no connection to the marketing or financial plan. No matter how long you search in the wrong place, you will never find what you really need. When the answer is in the emotional parts of business, logic will not work, and vice versa. Check to ascertain the gender of your organization in the most honest of ways; then give a balanced approach to your leadership and management style. Pay enough attention to the logical factors, you need them out there on the field; but also take seriously the emotional factors, they give a balance to your logical actions and principles.

To your enterprise effectiveness,

Adeleke David Adekunle

Mr. Effectiveness