Are your business goals a he or a she thing?
When it comes to successful business goals there’s always been this gender question. Are female owned businesses as successful at meeting business goals as their male counterparts based on rate of business failures and lower business performance?
Criticism points out this is an unfair comparison, since there’s a general tendency for each to have different goals. Men are more likely to pursue economic goals and women are more likely to pursue social goals. Each being successful, respectively.
When trying to understand this difference on a deeper level, there’s a limited amount of research to draw from. The most recent study mentioned is by a goal training organization looking at professionals world-wide engaged in goal performance learning. It suggests differences in tendencies when it comes to gender and business goals.
But, before focusing on gender differences there are other issues which also affect successful business goal outcome.
They include the attitudes that carry over from setting personal goals especially the New Year’s resolution type. The average failure rate is around 90%, so it doesn’t bode well for using the same mindset when it comes to business goals.
Prior business goal experience is also a consideration. For those who have been part of corporate goal team efforts, there’s an understanding of what it takes to implement a business goal. While prior experience may seem advantageous, once in a solopreneur business the team effort is lost and total business goal success shifts to an individual responsibility.
Further, business goals can be very challenging for those who enter online sales and marketing without any business experience. It becomes a steeper learning curve to set a mixture of business goals for marketing products or services, as well as, those behind the scenes goals of mastering the technology.
The Gender Breakdown
These are gender differences that have been noted when it comes to business goals:
Men visualize the final goal outcome better; women are less clear or certain about what they want to achieve.
Women care more about goals and set more ambitious goals; men are less emotionally attached but more focused on specific goals.
Men are better at treating goals with urgency and deadlines, women are more likely to procrastinate.
Women tend to spend more time planning and list making when it comes to goals; men opt for more immediate actions but may fail due to lack of planning.
Win or Draw?
While it might seem men are better at business goals, actually women come endowed with two of the best goal skills i.e., emotional vested interest and list making.
Women who are emotionally vested are more likely to have a “why” for wanting to accomplish business goals and be more willing to persevere through challenges. Some may see their businesses as children to be supported and nurtured. Others find the goals to be a source of financial security and personal fulfillment.
List making just might be written into the female DNA code. Whether it’s a shopping list, a to-do-list or a bucket list, women tend to more easily identify what’s relevant and what needs to be done. This is an imperative skill when it comes to planning out the strategies that turn business goals into business results.
Does one really have an advantage over the other? Sometimes yes; sometimes no.
However, in today’s fast changing business environment, both men and women need to be recognized for their business goal strengths.
When it comes to business goals, it’s more about what skills do you already have, what skills are you willing to learn and what skills are you willing to put into action to be successful in your business?
Let’s chat in the comments below if you think gender plays a role in business goal success.
Sources:
https://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/how-to-keep-your-new-years-resolutions/#comments
http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1124&context=fer
http://www.webpronewsnl.com/the-goal-setting-differences-between-men-and-women-2010-12