246: Andie Kramer & Al Harris: Breaking Through Bias

Andie Kramer and Al Harris are married practicing lawyers. They have been mentoring women and speaking and writing about gender communication for more than 30 years. Andie and Al offer women unique, balanced, and highly practical advice they can use to prevent gender biases from slowing or derailing their careers.

Andie and Al also present arresting information and compelling examples for male audiences to make them aware of and sensitive to the gender biases that hold women back—even in the most well-intentioned organizations. This power couple provides organizations—business and professional—with concrete, non- disruptive suggestions for workplace changes that will make women’s career opportunities more comparable to men’s.

Authors of the popular book Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work, this power couple brings a unique viewpoint to both women and men looking to navigate gender bias. Their new book coming out soon, It’s Not You, It’s The Workplace: Women’s Conflict At Work And The Bias That Built It, addresses the biases between women and how to break through the glass ceiling together.

In today’s conversation, Andie and Al help us understand that the glass ceiling still exists even in the most well-intentioned environments and what we can do to keep moving forward while working together. We explore the differences between men and women in the way each approaches performance evaluations, business meetings, and mentorship. Andie and Al teach us about impression management, surprising studies among millennial men, why we haven’t seen real improvement in women’s advancement since the mid-90s, and what we can do about it to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all.  

Key Takeaways

1. We haven’t seen real improvement in women’s advancement since the mid-90s.
2. Gender stereotypes and the biases that flow from them haven’t changed since the 70s.
3. Very often the differences between men and women in the workplace get exaggerated.
4. Researchers have found that in the workplace there are far more differences between women and between men verses women as a group and men as a group.
5. Powerful people get allocated space.
6. It’s much harder for people to ignore you when you’re standing verses sitting in a seat.
7. People’s impressions of us are far more related to our non-verbal behavior and the way we present ourselves than they are to the content of what we say.
8. Women tend to be more interested in getting their words right than getting their persona and posture right.
9. Women hold the same stereotypes about women as men have about them.
10. Organizations that are diverse do better – they make more money, they’re more profitable, and they come up with more creative solutions.

Resources

Visit: www.andieandal.com/lot

• Navigating Gender Bias – Free Assessment
• Gender Bias – Free Workplace Survey
• Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work
• It’s Not You It’s The Workplace: Women’s Conflict at Work and the Bias That Built It

Connect With Andie Kramer and Al Harris

• Website: andieandal.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaskramer
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndieandAl
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breakingthroughbias/