I grew up with two sisters and 10 girl cousins. No boys. Then I got married and had two boys. The only female in my house for years besides me has been the dog. So when the authors I interviewed below for my Gannett column told me that men and women communicate differently, I knew what they were saying. Boy, did I know . Anyone who has been married or in a long-term relationship with the opposite sex might readily agree that men and women communicate differently. Unfortunately, say the authors of a new book on managing your career, those differing communications styles at work can become “gender traps” that hurt your chances of assuming a leadership role on the job. “While we as men and women should embrace and celebrate our differences, the truth is that sometimes there are misinterpretations of what we’re saying at work,” says Roz Usheroff. Usheroff, in a book with Beth Banks Cohn called “Taking the Leap,” ($14.99), says that a woman, for example, may become caught in the “superwoman trap” when she doesn’t create clear boundaries and tries to do everything herself. Instead, they say, women should “learn to say no and mean it.” For a man, a communication problem may be the “Goliath trap,” where the man tries to gain support for his cause by portraying himself as the little guy against a big, bad foe. That’s a mistake, they say. “You may have competitors, you may have colleagues who have different approaches or opinions that yours, but they are just that, not the ‘enemy.’ Labeling someone the ‘enemy’ dehumanizes them and has no place in business,” the authors say. Usheroff notes that men and women should get input from others about their communication style to make sure they’re seen as leaders by others.

Original Source of Are You Stuck in Gender Communication Traps at Work?