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Men and Women

Must Work Together
July 17, 2018

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Yes, you heard that right! Men and women have got to work
together, and we have to make it work better. When good
men and women work side-by-side, they form more
powerful teams, provide better results, and add to the
longevity of a business.

Look, nowadays with the #MeToo movement we are all

privy to the dirty underbelly of men behaving disgustingly
with women in the workplace. But if our takeaway is a
mistrustful and more segregated business world, the result
is going to be an even greater gender-biased environment
than the one we are in today. And living in Gilead is not
good for men OR women.

Though the predatory monsters have had opportunities to

freely do their “groping” in every area of society, it is unfair
to judge all men – or in a few cases, women – based on
these shocking stories. In my experience, these cases are
the exception, not the rule.

When men and women work together, they can produce

exceptional results in the workplace and even more
importantly, they wind up doing the same for their personal
lives and therefore for the world in general. Women benefit
from working with men, and men benefit from working with
women. It is symbiotic.

A Real-World Experience Of The Benefits Of Working

Together

Eve & Isaac Ashworth

My husband Isaac and I have been married for 21 years and

have worked together almost as long. Like any couple who
have been together for decades, we have struggled through
challenges, and there are many circumstances and
situations that still pop-up and demand to be worked
through. But, it is because of the obstacles (combined with
our commitment to work our way through them no matter
what) that we have seen the amazing potential that comes
out of men and women learning from each other.

Had I been alone running our marketing agency, I wouldn’t

have been able to pull it off for very long. And I don’t think
Isaac would have either. The reason for our success is that
we balance each other by working together. I like to take big
risks, and Isaac doesn’t. He talks me out of the crazier,
impulsive risks and I can nudge him toward more
calculated ones that have benefited us.

I find that male and female perspectives are unique. For

instance, when it comes to employees, his approach is
entirely different from mine. Sometimes people do things
that will really bug me, and Isaac will say “that is just the
way some people are at work, why would you let that
bother you?” and I immediately drop it and move on. And I
can point out things to him that ultimately help us both
better at managing people.

How We Have Succeeded In Working Together

Isaac and I believe that your work should be an extension of

how you live your life and this philosophy is deeply
embedded in our company.

We have a zero-tolerance policy for drama, and we make

this clear in the very beginning of our relationship with
team members. If you have an issue, you need to approach
people directly, or reach out to a manager rather than talk
behind anyone’s back. We try to give people the tools to be
able to run their own business within our business. We
don’t want to be micromanagers or babysitters.

In the environment we have created, there is neither a man

or a woman in charge. Because of that equal partnership,
we have been able to create a place where genders work
together, feeling safe and also where opportunities are
available equally.

We never, ever, hire based on someone’s gender. Because

of this, we look at people in terms of their potential as a
valuable resource. We have had times when there were
more women on staff than men and vice versa, but it is
never anything that is obvious or glaring. It is an
environment that feels different.

Team Building Advice: Fire Fast And Hire Slow

The biggest regret that we have is that we didn’t part ways

sooner with someone who clearly wanted to bring their
toxic personal life to work with them. So don’t be afraid to
take on extra work yourself if it means taking longer to find
the right person for the job. When you are not afraid to fire
someone, you can save yourself from wasting years of
salary on a hire who is not doing right by you and the rest of
your team.

Conversely, if you interview someone with that spark of

energy in their eyes, showing that they are really raring to go
and want to take on new challenges, hire them but not until
you’ve interviewed them a couple of times and given them
a sample project to work on.

Here at Ashworth Creative, we are a small firm, so we often

need to step in and perform tasks that were not necessarily
in our comfort zone or our original bag of tricks, so we
depend on talent that is flexible and eager to learn, but it
might take a couple of meetings before you know that.

It’s About More Than Men and Women

Yes, to build a great culture in your company and

throughout the planet, it is vital that we focus on gender
balance and ensure that men and women are working
positively together. We bring a different set of skills and
experience, be it a man or woman, and the perfect
amalgamation of these differences is what will take us all
into a better future.

But it is clear that it is time we step up our game in

managing how we all come together as a people, whether it
be man, woman, your race, color, religion or sexual
orientation. No matter what it is that you believe in, it’s
simply no longer workable to generalize about one type of
person. If we don’t return to the basics of patience,
tolerance, and kindness, we are not going to live up to our
enormous potential.

There is an open invitation waiting for us to build a society

that is safe and draws out our individual talents and
contributions. We choose to begin building a supportive
culture in an area where we do have some control – in
operating a gender equal business.

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