The Cranky Middle Manager Show #164 Leadership and the Sexes- Michael Gurian
Today Wayne Turmel steps into the tricky waters of gender science to see how male and female brains differ and what that means to business. Our guest is Michael Gurian, co-author of Leadership and the Sexes- Using Gender Scient to Create Success in Business. 
Michael Gurian
My new book- a great gift for your team
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. A long show today so no dedication. We are talking about differences between how men and women lead and what their brains tell us. Joke all you want, we are talking science here. The book is by Michael Gurian and Barbara Annis. Don’t draw any conclusions just cause I’m talking to the guy.
1:37 The quote of the week is from Plato… a simple enough premise, but do men and women receive the same education? What about the stuff we KNOW but were never TAUGHT? Hmmmmmmm?  If you dig quotes, don’t forget my new book, “125 Quotes for Whacking Weasels- Centuries of Wisdom, Motivation and Snappy Comebacks From the Cranky Middle Manager Show”. Oh it’s now available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. If you like it, leave a review. Heck leave a review and pretend you read it…..
By the way, if you’re in the Chicago area in Mid-December, you might want to take part in the stealth beta-version of our new manager program. Drop me a line for more details.
3:15 Michael Gurian is the head of the Gurian Institute . Longtime listeners know I”m a brain geek. Today we talk brain science and the differences between the sexes based on neurons and the like. There are over 100 physical differences between the sexes. Turns out a lot of these things are set before you dress them in pink or blue.
7:45 Is a male/female brain a binary thing or is it a sliding scale? About 20% of people are “bridge-brains”. Oh, and computer geeks have more male brains than most people…regardless of what the guys who beat you up in highschool told you.
13:00 IBM has done a big old study… really this matters in things like how you run meetings, how people communicate, how you market and how you handle conflict among other things. Cross-gender mentoring was a big part of their response… it helps to understand how people work.
17:25 This is a hard conversation to have. Why is it so difficult to talk about our differences?
20:48 Here are some tips for getting a new team to help understand each other and have those conversations. There are some great meeting tips here too. It’s amazing what an agenda can accomplish for both female brains and male brains….but for different reasons.
29:35 Schools in the US are currently great places to be if you’re a girl…for boys not so much. check out Michael’s books The Minds of Boys… and the Wonder of Girls
Other Resources