PA Life Summit 2018: Adam Fidler reveals how understanding gender intelligence can better an assistant’s career

Most people are familiar with the term IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional intelligence), however a fairly new term found in the workplace is GQ (gender quotient).

Adam Fidler, founder of the Adam Fidler Academy, spoke at the PA Life Summit today with a key focus on gender intelligence and how it can enable women and men understand each other’s way of thinking and acting.

During his session today, Fidler highlighted the research conducted by Barbara Annis and John MacLachlan Gray of 100,000 workers, who discovered eight key gender blindspots.

These included beliefs, appreciation, exclusion, feedback, questions, listening, emotion and attentiveness.

Fidler noted that women often feel excluded and left out in their working environment, while men get stuck in and involve themselves in social functions. He said: “That’s why I would encourage you, as assistants, to have a voice and attend social functions to ensure you are included.”

Similarly, with emotions men tend to externalise theirs, while women internalise and share with others. He added: “In my 20s I was a very sensitive assistant having just started out in my role at Boots. When someone would give me feedback I’d go home and think about it for hours.”

This morning, Fidler expressed that assistants need to find their voice to ensure they are heard and stand out against their male counterparts, as traditionally most bosses are men and most assistants are women.

He suggested that assistants should learn to speak about their results openly with their bosses and their peers. Fidler continued: “We need to get better at using ‘I’ statements and be in confident in our abilities.

“When we use the ‘I’ statement we show we are taking ownership and creating an adult relationship. If you want to build credibility and confidence we need to start speaking more directly.”

Fidler’s key learning for assistants to adopt include:
Ask to be involved
Avoid using passive language
Have regular 1-2-1s with your boss
Ask direct questions
Participate in meetings
Frame conversations by chunking up headlines