Double-Flush Award For Bad Business Writing
“A study in The Washington Post says that women have better verbal skills than men. I just want to say to the authors of that study: ‘Duh.’ ” — Conan O’Brien
How bad can a business book be? Well, here’s one that’s so dreadful that it inspired me to create a special prize: The first Double-Flush Award for Bad Business Writing goes to “What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business” (Wiley, 2007).
The book’s subtitle is “Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook.” What playbook? Who’s guarding it? I confess that I did not read every page of the book — I just couldn’t — but I encountered nothing resembling actual research. No, this is one man-jerk’s opinion. And I would just ignore his opinion, but it’s a dangerous one.
Alpha Male Silliness
The author, Christopher Flett, equates being an “alpha male” with macho silliness, the sort that wise businessmen understand is counterproductive.
For instance, Flett describes his early success by saying, “If a competitor dared get in my path, they’d either yield or I’d destroy them. I even on occasion sent black roses to competitors when I’d get one of their key employees to quit or when I’d steal a contract from underneath them.” Black roses, eh? No wonder his father once said to him, “You’re an embarrassment to me and yourself.”
The dad’s comment was the author’s Big Insight Moment, and he somehow used it to decide that he should reveal to women how to work with macho egomaniacs. And while claiming to be reformed, he spends much of the book delighting in the details of just how these crotch-scratchers view the world.
And he describes how an alpha male moans aloud to his office mates that working over the weekend will cause his son to be heartbroken, upping the whining until a soft-hearted co-worker volunteers to help. The result: “Now that I have alleviated my three-foot pile of paperwork that has to be done by Monday … I’m free to take the weekend off.”
Creating Value
As someone who has spent two decades around high-achievers of every ilk, not once during the book’s sad recounting of small-minded stratagems did I get a blip of recognition.
There is no overlap between Flett’s alpha male and the successful executives, male or female, I’ve studied. Indeed, the fundamental requirement of building a thriving, lasting organization is creating value, and you do that by being creatively useful.
Business at its best is a game of how much you can give for a buck, not how much you can chisel. And I believe that women are naturally inclined to such an understanding. However, believing that bullying is a key male attribute of success, and imitating it, thwarts that understanding. As Joan Rivers once pointed out, “If women are going to act like men, at least act like nice men.”
But Flett’s conception of business is a common and unremarkable mistake. What offends me is his packaging smallness as a secret, hoping to foist it on women who are already being misled by media misunderstanding of data on gender and income.
There is great danger in blaming. Once you decide that it’s a conspiracy holding you back, you stop looking for ways to elevate your performance and instead descend into bitterness.
Look for gender discrimination and you’ll find it, and it will drag you down. On the other hand, look for knowledge and assistance, and you’ll find that too, and it will lift your spirits and your position.
So let’s leave behind the idea of secrets and conspiracy. If you want to hold a mental picture of “alpha” business leaders, picture, say, Dave Thomas and Walt Disney. Then, let’s add the most accomplished woman in the country, Oprah Winfrey.
If you did a composite photo of those three exemplars, what would you see? You’d see kind eyes with the sparkle of inventiveness and a glint of intensity. You’d have the countenance of someone open-minded, eager to learn and experiment, and intent on doing something that will make others smile. That’s alpha. The rest is just Beta-S.
Dale Dauten is the founder of The Innovators’ Lab. His latest book is “(Great) Employees Only: How Gifted Bosses Hire and De-Hire Their Way to Success.”
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