Am I Approaching My Female Coworkers the Wrong Way?
Coaching Real Leaders
Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins
4.8 • 759 Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He’s a senior leader in a hospital, who has long seen himself as an advocate for equality for his female colleagues. But in the past few years, he’s faced a few instances where women he works with have been offended by exchanges with him.
While there is much talk about gender equity at the organizational level, there’s still a lot of discomfort around how it actually plays out interpersonally at work. Host Muriel Wilkins coaches this leader toward a stronger understanding of his own assumptions and how he can manage across differences.
For further reading:
- 4 Conversations Leaders in the #MeToo Era Should Be Ready For
- That’s What She Said
- How Those With Power and Privilege Can Help Others Advance
- Work with Me: How gender intelligence can help you succeed at work and in life
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | HBR Presents. |
| 0:03.0 | I'm Yario Wilkins, and this is coaching real leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network. |
| 0:18.8 | I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful |
| 0:22.1 | leaders who've hit a bump in the road. My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying |
| 0:27.4 | their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little |
| 0:32.4 | more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have a one-time |
| 0:39.2 | coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing. |
| 0:47.8 | Today's guest is someone will call Nick to protect his confidentiality. He's a leader in the |
| 0:53.3 | medical field and has been a hospital chief for |
| 0:55.6 | over a decade. It's a role that involves a lot of people management over and beyond his |
| 1:01.2 | clinical responsibilities. He's viewed himself as someone who's pretty good at interpersonal relations. |
| 1:07.0 | It's something he's gotten positive feedback on in the past. But more recently, he's been surprised by how some of his interactions with female colleagues have gone. |
| 1:16.0 | And while he's considered himself a supporter of gender equity, |
| 1:19.7 | he now wonders if he's part of the issue, and even more so, what he can do about it. |
| 1:25.2 | The gender equity is very good in our hospital, including amongst leaders. |
| 1:29.3 | And I see myself interacting with women in different positions |
| 1:33.3 | and in my own department, in my own group. |
| 1:37.3 | And I want to see how to make that better, |
| 1:39.3 | because these two instances sort of cause me to rethink |
| 1:41.3 | how I'm thinking about my interactions and whether I'm |
| 1:46.1 | sensitive enough to understanding the reactions or what I say. Am I listening enough? Should I be |
| 1:53.7 | listening differently to a man and a woman? In the last few years, issues related to diversity, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.