Read Online Knowing Your Value by Mika Brzezinski - Free Book Online
Authors: Mika Brzezinski
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bit as good as a man and has many of the same characteristics. One thing I would say is that certain industries are much more amenable to women leaders and they all will be eventually ... But good leaders are gender-neutral.”
Welch believes that truly great executives don’t even have to take their gender into consideration. “They’re comfortable with their gender, male or female. They’re not going to mask one or the other,” he says.
Or could it be that truly great female executives navigate gender differences so instinctively and effectively that the men don’t notice?
Donald Trump is another American business legend. Chairman and president of the Trump Organization, his real estate development firm, as well as the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, Trump is also the tremendously popular host and executive producer of the NBC reality show The Apprentice .
So, does Trump agree with the theory that women executives work harder than men? Trump says that twenty years ago one could make that argument, but not today: “Some of the best people I’ve ever hired were women,” he says. He put a woman in charge of the construction of Trump
Tower, as well as the construction of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, at a time when women in the construction field probably felt they had to try harder in order to prove themselves, he tells me.
“Now I think twenty years ago there was a big difference. There was a theory that women had an inferiority complex when it came to the workplace, right?” Trump says. But that theory doesn’t necessarily hold true anymore, because “now when they’re really good, they know they’re really good.”
Could it be that everyone who works for Trump is equally aggressive simply because he hires aggressive people?
“If they’re stars I generally find they’re aggressive and it doesn’t matter whether they’re women or men. I hire people who are A types and once they reach a certain level of success, the way they will negotiate with you or talk to you becomes very much the same.”
So what makes them successful? What breaks the mold?
Trump says simply, “They have to have drive. Look, you have to start off with the brain. If you don’t have the brainpower, the game is over. So let’s assume we’re dealing with all intelligent people. The one thing that I’ve seen that separates the really successful people from the people that don’t quite get there is the drive. It’s that never-ending drive. I went to the Wharton School of Finance, that’s the best [business] school, and we had the smartest guys there. I can tell you there were guys in my class who were really smart who never made it because they didn’t have the drive.”
While I certainly agree with both Welch and Trump that women are equally capable, I have to believe that women bring different abilities and sensibilities to their work, and in many cases that works to their advantage, and to their companies’ advantage. Gender research is ongoing, but anecdotal evidence is a powerful thing. All the other women—and men—I spoke with pointed to the fact that women are simply more collaborative.
“Give me a man and a woman of the same talent, and I will take the woman every single time.”
—DONNY DEUTSCH
“Surrounding myself with women is a real key to my success,” Donny Deutsch tells me. Of course he said that! If you’ve seen Deutsch on Morning Joe , you know that we have an ongoing on-air joke about his attitude toward women. He even bought me a pair of $800 shoes to “buy back” my favor after insulting me on air with sarcastic remarks that some regarded as borderline misogynistic. But Deutsch has valuable contributions to make to this conversation. The chairman of a multibillion-dollar advertising agency, he has big money to match his big personality and fancy wardrobe. The man thinks big, and he explains how I can too.
“Give me a man and a woman of the same talent, and I will take the
Welch believes that truly great executives don’t even have to take their gender into consideration. “They’re comfortable with their gender, male or female. They’re not going to mask one or the other,” he says.
Or could it be that truly great female executives navigate gender differences so instinctively and effectively that the men don’t notice?
Donald Trump is another American business legend. Chairman and president of the Trump Organization, his real estate development firm, as well as the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, Trump is also the tremendously popular host and executive producer of the NBC reality show The Apprentice .
So, does Trump agree with the theory that women executives work harder than men? Trump says that twenty years ago one could make that argument, but not today: “Some of the best people I’ve ever hired were women,” he says. He put a woman in charge of the construction of Trump
Tower, as well as the construction of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, at a time when women in the construction field probably felt they had to try harder in order to prove themselves, he tells me.
“Now I think twenty years ago there was a big difference. There was a theory that women had an inferiority complex when it came to the workplace, right?” Trump says. But that theory doesn’t necessarily hold true anymore, because “now when they’re really good, they know they’re really good.”
Could it be that everyone who works for Trump is equally aggressive simply because he hires aggressive people?
“If they’re stars I generally find they’re aggressive and it doesn’t matter whether they’re women or men. I hire people who are A types and once they reach a certain level of success, the way they will negotiate with you or talk to you becomes very much the same.”
So what makes them successful? What breaks the mold?
Trump says simply, “They have to have drive. Look, you have to start off with the brain. If you don’t have the brainpower, the game is over. So let’s assume we’re dealing with all intelligent people. The one thing that I’ve seen that separates the really successful people from the people that don’t quite get there is the drive. It’s that never-ending drive. I went to the Wharton School of Finance, that’s the best [business] school, and we had the smartest guys there. I can tell you there were guys in my class who were really smart who never made it because they didn’t have the drive.”
While I certainly agree with both Welch and Trump that women are equally capable, I have to believe that women bring different abilities and sensibilities to their work, and in many cases that works to their advantage, and to their companies’ advantage. Gender research is ongoing, but anecdotal evidence is a powerful thing. All the other women—and men—I spoke with pointed to the fact that women are simply more collaborative.
“Give me a man and a woman of the same talent, and I will take the woman every single time.”
—DONNY DEUTSCH
“Surrounding myself with women is a real key to my success,” Donny Deutsch tells me. Of course he said that! If you’ve seen Deutsch on Morning Joe , you know that we have an ongoing on-air joke about his attitude toward women. He even bought me a pair of $800 shoes to “buy back” my favor after insulting me on air with sarcastic remarks that some regarded as borderline misogynistic. But Deutsch has valuable contributions to make to this conversation. The chairman of a multibillion-dollar advertising agency, he has big money to match his big personality and fancy wardrobe. The man thinks big, and he explains how I can too.
“Give me a man and a woman of the same talent, and I will take the
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