Mind If I B*tch a Bit?

I'd love to get some feedback on the following issue; I’m not sure if this is a female thing, or if men have experienced this bizarre phenomenon as well.

I’ve heard from several people recently that their female managers are ‘really mean,’ citing examples like putting employees down and even blaming them in situations in which they weren’t involved. Most of these conversations have taken place with women, though not all. To add to that, I recently spoke with a great businesswoman who should have been promoted to high level management, but her female manager passed her over for the promotion because “she wasn’t mean enough.” I’m not kidding -- that’s a direct quote.

Kindness Counts

Why is it that some women think they need to be mean to be a good manager? I have had some great managers and mentors in my career -- both male and female -- and the best ones, hands down, have always been kind. They have not managed from a place of fear but from a place of support. They’ve let me make decisions; they’ve let me fail but have always provided me with a safety net so I never crashed too badly.

I’m sure we can do more as women in the workforce to support and help one another rise to our potential; and we should be promoting positive ways of doing so. I love following CompTIA’s Advancing Women in IT community posts; it is great to see women and men supporting one another equally.

ADDENDUM: This week I was lucky enough to see that this issue is not the case everywhere. I spent about three hours with several women who work together; their team is made up entirely of women. And they loved it. The level of respect they showed one another (and me) and the level of character each woman brought to the table on behalf of their company, was awesome. I hope in my journey at ChannelE2E I get to see a lot more of this supportive structure, and I hope you all do as well.