The Cultural Divide: Masculine and Feminine Traits at Work

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about value lately, or more specifically knowing your own worth. When we think of value we often think of things that are valuable or are value for money which implies value is directly related to money or external worth. But what about knowing your own intrinsic worth?

We’ve been brought up believing that feminine qualities are somehow less valuable in the workplace than those that are considered more masculine. Competition, confidence, being strong, being ruthless and/or independent are highly prized qualities at work. Whereas being nurturing, supportive, caring, dependable or collegiate are somehow less valuable.

I was raised by a strong woman and grew up in a house that was more clearly driven by feminine gender traits but I was taught to believe I could do anything, be anything and that being a strong, independent woman was a good thing. I was taught that you didn’t have to choose between being friendly and supportive and still getting ahead in your career

I believe we all have a little bit of both masculine and feminine traits in us, whether we’re male or female, and having balance between those traits inside and outside of work is the optimal situation. But when we live in a highly consumerist world which is driven by achieving more, meaning generally making more money, and in the context of more men being in senior management positions than women, there is little wonder that as a culture we believe being individualistic and competitive are better qualities to have.

I love the cut and thrust of business, I enjoy succeeding and achieving and I love competing but I prefer to compete as a team than stand on others just to get myself noticed. I’ll happily promote others contributions, even if it means I’m not in the lime light myself. I take pride from seeing others develop and shine. But if you work somewhere that does not attribute value to these qualities, how do you prove your worth? Do you behave more like everyone else or do you keep your integrity and stick to the values that you believe in?

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately about my values, what I perceive as having worth and whether being competitive and ruthless is the only way to get recognition? Being a Business Psychologist I’ve done a lot of research into high performing businesses and sure, organisations that promote external benefits such as pay, bonuses and promotion can be successful but are employees happy?

Research tells us that when employees are motivated by intrinsic values, such as believing in what their organisation is trying to achieve, working together towards a common purpose and are supported and made to feel valued through regular feedback, they perform better than those who are only offered money in return. In fact, highly engaged employees are not only more motivated but that in turn has a benefit on the bottom line and actually makes the business more successful.

Knowing this, I still don’t understand why both masculine and feminine qualities are not equally prized. Is there a reason why by the age of 30 many women have either dropped out of the workplace or taken a step back in terms of responsibility? Yes this is also because women still take on most of the childcare responsibilities but then why are they still having to choose?

I have been in situations where it has been strongly inferred that to get promoted means making sacrifices in my personal life. To consider where I want to be in the future and whether I could balance my work alongside having a family. This only becomes more prevalent once you get married as assumptions are made that you'll be off soon anyway. Making assumptions is always dangerous, especially where having a family is concerned, as not everyone follows that path. And instead of telling women they should choose between work and family life, society and organisations should have evolved to a point where the conversation is about helping women and men balance work and life.

Of course one way of doing business is all about working 16 hour days but I think there is a way for people to work smarter, not harder. How can you be sure that people are performing at their peak for those 16 hours a day? Or would they be better off having proper down time, pursuing their hobbies, spending time with their family? Perhaps they’ll be more motivated and productive employees if organisations help them balance work and life.

So back to the issue of value and worth. Is it right that someone else can determine your worth or is it just logical that you’re only worth what someone else is prepared to value you at? I suppose if we only measure worth based on one set of criteria, we’ll forever find that typically feminine values are less highly regarded and prized. People will be less inclined to work together, share in each other’s successes and celebrate differences.

I just also want to say here that this isn’t purely about gender, as some men exhibit more feminine traits but organisational culture at the minute is very biased towards masculine traits, putting both men and women at a disadvantage. So we have a choice, we can either get on board, conform to the bias and act more masculine at work, or we can stand together, celebrate diversity and show that there is another way.

Over time I hope this is the way all organisations will see the world but for now we all have to know how to play the game in the world while still nudging things in the right direction.

So here are my top tips for demonstrating your worth in workplace:

First of all, know your value and don’t let anyone tell you’re worth less. Especially if you’re a woman in a heavily masculine culture. I’ve experienced it myself where over time where it can erode your self-esteem and makes you question your own worth. This is precisely what other people with fragile egos to do to make them feel more important. Don’t let them.

Secondly, make sure you can prove your worth. People believe you cannot put numbers and targets on more intrinsic values like helpfulness and team work. This is untrue, it just requires a bit more creativity than looking at the bottom line of a spreadsheet. As well as ensuring your workplace measures some of these traits, you do also have to ensure you can also demonstrate your value in more traditional metrics such as income generated, ability to show initiative and even when working in a team, always know exactly what your individual contribution to the outcome was.

Thirdly, be seen. If you don’t think you are being valued, be bold and change the story about you. A typical feminine trait is being passive and modest, and humility is a great quality to retain, but being passive does not get you noticed. You’ve got to face this head on – network your ass off, make sure people know what you’re doing.

Use the adage 20% show pony and 80% work horse, which means spend most of your time finding projects that are a great match for your skills, work hard and deliver what you say you will. Then spend 20% of your time being your own awesome PR machine. Tell others about your achievements (in a nice way), use social media platforms such as Linked In, volunteer for new assignments and cultivate strong sponsor relationships where someone in a senior position will advocate for you.  

Finally, try to move beyond the blockers. If you have a manager who is impeding you or undervaluing you at work, then try to find ways to work beyond them with other managers who will support you by volunteering for other projects. Take opportunities to hold them to account by putting on record in appraisals or one to one meetings that you would like more opportunity for visibility and ask them what they specifically can do to give you that opportunity. Be tenacious and follow up with them afterwards if they don’t fulfil their promises.

If all of the above doesn’t work and you still feel like you are not being shown the value you deserve then this is where it is so important to know and jealously guard your own worth. If your current employer refuses to show you the value you deserve, go somewhere where they will value you.

I’ve seen so many bright, talented people stay stuck in jobs that erode their confidence and keep them stuck in the same place for years, as if they were in an abusive relationship and sometimes this is the case. Their boss praises them one minute and then threatens that they might not have a job the next, being overly controlling and grabbing all of the glory for their successes. This is not a healthy place to be and if you find yourself here, run! Don’t let the pattern take hold as it is incredibly destructive to self-esteem.

Value is important, as perception is reality in the work world, but really knowing your own worth is so much more essential.

Have you experienced any of these things at work or anywhere else? What did you do to solve it?

Want to achieve your work goals in 2016?

We all sometimes feel like no sooner has February rolled around (or earlier...ahem) that we've given up our New Year's resolutions and those bad habits continue or we struggle to form fresh new, healthy goals at work. Whether it be hitting project milestones or being more assertive. I tend to be of the view that goals can be started at any time, if there's good reason, so with that in mind, I'm deciding what's in with the new and out with the old! 

Goals are vital for career development and work success and as a psychologist I find it really interesting to understand motivations and how to get the best from our individual personalities, so I've put together a short quiz to you figure out how to get the best from yourself.

I would love to hear what your result was and whether it's what you expected. Share it with colleagues and see what they get - it might be the key to helping each other stick to your goals in 2016. 

Adapted from a Gretchen Rubin quiz,2012

Get more engagement from your customers using these 3 easy tips

Family and friends are no longer the only influencers for consumer purchasing decisions, although they are still an important reference group. Opinion leaders, voluntary or appointed people, who are knowledgeable and objective in their field are influencers. Seeking an opinion leader lowers purchasing risk substantially.

Opinion leaders are often among the first to buy new products, so any brand wanting to diffuse products, i.e. penetrate the market quickly, should seek out these people. A business could adopt a skimming strategy to target early adopters and sell at a much higher premium to recoup costs quickly, lowering the risk and price for the late adopters. A disadvantage to this approach is that once the product is in the hands of opinion leaders, it is difficult to control what is being said, so the brand experience must be positive..

Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50% of all purchasing decisions. Its influence is greatest when consumers are buying a product for the first time or when the product is relatively expensive.

How quickly a product is adopted is related to evaluation based on opinion marketing, based on the fact that the cognitive process of liking something leads to buying behaviour. However, this is only true of highly motivated consumers.

Consumer conformity can also be exploited by tapping into reference groups through membership or aspiration to be part of a group. This makes it all the more important for brands to know how their customers relate to which groups and to infiltrate their networks creating brand advocates.

There’s a tendency to assume that if lots of people who seem like me believe something, there must be a good reason why.

Each individual has a propensity to conform, both intrinsically as a part of their belief system but also relating to individual situations where confidence or knowledge is lacking. For example, if someone is unsure which brand of juicer to purchase, they will most likely defer to an authority figure's prior knowledge. This becomes more relevant the more expensive the product. 

Brand influencers or market mavens, as identified by psychographics factors, are a brand's best friend, as they are not only early adopters of the product/ service but also evangelistic about it. They identify the trends early and then show loyalty to the brand which drives other lagards or late adopters to try things.

There are times when a consumer is not even aware they want something until someone they look up to has it and so brands should take this into account when marketing new products. Trends play a huge role in this and so when diffusing a new product it is vital to understand where the product sits on the fashion cycle, i.e. unconventional or in high demand/ low supply. 

A prime example of this is the upsurge in travel related brands, which are riding high on the fashion life-cycle currently. There is exponential opportunity in this space but brands are typically operating in a traditional manner. They should find ways to engage on a more meaningful level with consumers and make the decisions easier.

Here are some helpful tips to take away:

- Most people look for ways to reduce risk when making purchases so make it as easy as possible

- Find your early adopters or market mavens and make them brand advocates. Ensure the experience is fantastic for your advocates and they'll promote your brand for you

- Where the purchasing decision is complex, expensive or your product is riding the low end of the fashion life-cycle, find your 'thought leaders/ tribes, who already have a large following and make them fall in love with your product.

Would you like to know more about market mavens and how to find them? I'd love to hear from you so please drop me a comment or follow me @insightspire.

Pricing your product or service for success

Pricing can be challenging and complex In my experience many businesses wing it as they don't really know where to begin.

But there is a scientific way to set pricing; smart pricing is deliberate. While intuition plays a role and you’ll learn more from trial and error than over analysis, it can be helpful to use consumer psychology to help set you in the right direction.

In that spirit, let’s take a look at a few psychological findings from the behavioral sciences to provide inspiration and insight on how to effectively set your prices.

1. Similarity Costs Sales

Limiting choices helps combat “analysis paralysis,” as too many options can be demotivating. You might expect, then, that having identical price points for multiple products would be ideal, right? Not always, according to research from Yale: if two similar items are priced the same, consumers are often less likely to buy one than if their prices are even slightly different. In one experiment, researchers gave users a choice of buying a pack of gum or keeping the money. When given a choice between two packs of gum, only 46% made a purchase when both were priced at 63 cents. Conversely, when the packs of gum were differently priced—at 62 cents and 64 cents—more than 77% of consumers chose to buy a pack. That’s quite an increase over the first group.

The implication isn't to set your identical vintage T-shirts at variable prices. Rather, recognize the why behind the inertia: when similar items have the same price, consumers are inclined to defer their decision instead of taking action.

2.Price Anchoring

As the saying goes, the best way to sell a £2,000 watch is to put it right next to a £10,000 watch. But why? The culprit is a common cognitive bias called anchoring. Anchoring refers to the tendency to heavily rely on the first piece of information offered when making decisions.
Placing premium products and services near standard options may help create a clearer sense of value for potential customers, who will view the less expensive options as a bargain in comparison.

3.Weber's Law

According to a principle known as Weber’s law, the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimuli. In other words, a change in something is affected by how big that something was beforehand. Weber’s law is often applied to production with a chocolate bar being made smaller, for example, but being retailed at the same price. When it comes to changes, there is no magic number, but Weber's law shows that approximately 10 percent is the average point where customers are stirred to respond. 

4.Reducing Pain Points

The human brain is wired to “spend ’til it hurts,” according to the field of neuroeconomics. The limit is reached when perceived pain is greater than perceived gain. Research from a University analyzed a number of ways to reduce these pain points and, in turn, increase post-purchase satisfaction and retention.
Here are a few select methods:

Reframe the product’s value.It’s easier to evaluate how much you’re getting out of an £84/month subscription than a £1,000/year subscription, even though they average out to around the same cost.
Bundle items purchased in tandem. Professor George Lowenstein notes that the LX version of car packages is a great example of successful bundling. It’s easier to justify a single upgrade than it is to consider purchasing the heated leather seats, navigation, and roadside assistance individually.
Appeal to utility or pleasure. For conservative spenders, a message focusing on utility is more effective: "This back massage can ease back pain." More liberal spenders were persuaded by a focus on pleasure: "This back massage will help you relax."
It’s either free or it isn’t. “Free” is a powerful word. Amazon’s sales in France were drastically lower than all other European countries. The problem was that French orders had a 20-cent shipping charge tacked on (versus free shipping elsewhere). Pricing well means extracting maximum value, but nickel-and-diming can cause more resistance in the long run.
Sweat the small stuff. Trial rates for a DVD subscription increased by 20 percent when the messaging was changed from “a £5 fee” to “a small £5 fee,” revealing that the devil sometimes is in the copy details.

5.Challenging a Timeless Tradition

Ending prices with the number nine is one of the oldest methods in the book, but does it actually work? The answer is a resounding yes, according to research from the journal Quantitative Marketing and Economics. Prices ending in nine were able to outsell even lower prices for the same product.
The study compared women’s clothing priced at £35 versus £39 and found that the prices ending in nine outperformed the lower prices by an average of 24%.
Sale prices—“Was £60, now only £45!”—were able to beat out the number nine. But when the number nine was included with a slashed sales price, it again outperformed lower price points.
For example, consumers were given the following option:

• Was £60, now only £45!
• Was £60, now only £49!

The sale price ending in nine outsold the one ending in five, even though it was more expensive. Apparently, pricing with nines may be an old trick, but it’s still effective.

6.Time Spent vs. Money Saved

Why would a bargain beer company like Miller Lite choose “It’s Miller Time!” for its slogan? Shouldn’t they emphasize their lower prices? Stanford University’s Jennifer Aaker argues that in many product categories, customers recall more positive memories when asked to remember time spent with the product over the money saved.
“Because a person’s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favorable attitudes—and to more purchases,” Aaker says. In a discussion published by the Wharton Business School, Aaker notes that many purchases tend to fall in either the “experiential” or “material” categories. Purchases like concert tickets benefit more from “time spent” messaging, whereas designer jean sales are aided by reminders of money and prestige.

7.Comparing Prices

When done poorly, chest-thumping about low prices can grant you a one-way ticket to low sales. According to research from Stanford, the act of comparative pricing can cause unintended effects if there is no context for why prices should be compared. Asking customers to make explicit comparisons about the price of your product and a competitor’s can cause people to lose trust in your messaging. The lead researcher noted, “The mere fact that we had asked them to make a comparison caused them to fear that they were being tricked in some way.”
A classic example of price comparison done right can be seen in the early days of Esurance. They explained why bottom-line insurance isn’t always the best solution, and they positioned their messaging around how they lower prices the right way—by eliminating needless expenses through their online-only approach ("Born online and built to save.").The focus should be on why prices are cheaper, not just that they are.

8.The Power of Context

Is there ever a time when one Budweiser is worth more than another? Logic would dictate no, but bar hoppers know this just isn’t the case. Where you buy affects how much you spend. Economist Richard Thaler put this to the test years ago, and found that customers were willing to pay higher prices for a Budweiser if they knew it was coming from an upscale hotel versus a run-down grocery store. Thaler asserts that context was the simple explanation here: the perceived prestige of the upscale hotel allowed it to get away with charging higher prices.
This is why people will pay more for a “multimedia course” over an eBook, even if the information offered is exactly the same. Perception goes a long way toward justifying whether or not a price is reasonable, so it’s beneficial to create a compelling narrative around a product. Head-slappingly obvious, yet so often forgotten by founders who neglect to position their products.

9.Different Levels of Pricing
Most of us are clueless about the concept of “value,” says professor William Poundstone, author of Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value. As such, we can be swayed in ways we wouldn’t believe possible. Poundstone discusses a study around the purchasing patterns of consumers over a selection of beer (yes, yet another study about beer!). In the first test, there were only two options available: a regular option and a premium option.
(Images courtesy of Nathan Barry)Test #1

Four out of five people chose the more popular premium option. Could adding a third item and price point increase revenue by targeting those looking for a cheaper option? The researchers tested this by adding a $1.60 beer to the menu.Test #2

Oops. The cheap beer was ignored and it upended the ratio of standard to premium purchases. This was clearly the wrong choice, since anchoring was playing a negative role. If customers don’t want a cheaper beer, perhaps a more expensive beer might work?Test #3

Much better. These examples show just how important it is to test out different pricing brackets, especially if you believe you may be undercharging. Some customers are always going to want the most expensive option. That doesn't make an enterprise plan right for every product, but it serves as a compelling reminder that you can almost always find a proper reason to charge more.10.Keeping Prices Simple
In a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, researchers found that prices that contained more syllables seemed drastically higher to consumers. Odd, right?
Here are the pricing structures that were tested:
·        £1,399.00
·        £1,399
·        £1399

The top two prices seemed far higher than the third price. This effect occurs because of the way one would say the numbers out loud: “One thousand four hundred and ninety-nine,” versus “fourteen ninety-nine.” This effect even occurs when the number is evaluated internally, or not spoken aloud. As silly as it may seem, the implication is similar to editing prose—avoid all unnecessary additions, and prefer the simplest style possible.

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Great products and services are priced on purpose. They have prices that develop over time and are guided by debate, scrutiny, and, most importantly, feedback from paying customers. As with all looks at academic research, it’s easy to fall into the shallow trap of “The Science of Science, Backed by Science.” Instead, view research as another company’s case study: a fair jumping-off point for inspiration, but nowhere near the finish line.





*This is an updated and edited version of Gregory Ciotti's article that was previously published in September 2015.