So I was binge watching Fauda with my friends, like you do. If you have not heard about this show it is a very intense story of an Israeli military unit that gathers intelligence by impersonating Arab members of a town in Ramallah. As expected there are some intense torture scenes. So, why would I bring this up?

“You know you are way too nice,” he said. “You should yell more. How will your team respect you if you don’t yell at them.”

At the time I didn’t understand this. When he said it to me, I looked at him and said, “I don’t feel the need to yell at them. I have my own ways of getting results by treating them as equals and projecting an air of authority by being calm and in control. You don’t have to yell to be in charge.”

Now that I’ve started researching the differences between the masculine and feminine approaches to management, I understand his reaction better. The male approach is a single-focused, target oriented, hierarchical way of thinking. It doesn’t take more feminine factors like feeling, connection, emotion, and community into account.

While working a giant TelCom Corp. one of the things that would cause my blood pressure to skyrocket and my face contort into a semi-permanent  scowl was the frustration of working effectively and efficiently without getting credit for it. I would create scripts and shortcuts and play the most productivity boosting playlist in order to best meet the mission impossible set before me. The mission: