Google Executive Celebrates Women By Interrupting Them
When we prepare executives for panel presentations, we typically focus on the message they want to convey and the manner in which they deliver it.
We focus less on how they interact with other panelists—but after reading an article about Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, we’ll probably bulk up that section of our trainings.
“Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt had a lot to say Monday about the lack of racial and gender diversity in the technology industry.
In fact, Schmidt had so much to say that he often interrupted and spoke over his co-panelist, Megan Smith, the U.S.’s chief technology officer and a former Google executive. The two appeared on a panel at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Tex.
At one point, Schmidt opined on which of two questions Smith should respond to. Later, he interjected mid-sentence with thoughts on Raspberry Pi, a small computer popular with digital tinkerers that Smith was promoting.
Toward the end of the session, one woman in the audience asked the two to address how personality biases in men and women affect workplace dynamics. She noted that Schmidt repeatedly talked over his former colleague — prompting applause from a full exhibit hall.”
It’s entirely possible that Mr. Schmidt didn’t interrupt Ms. Smith because he’s sexist. He may just be a serial interrupter. Or perhaps he was particularly excited about the subject matter. Or maybe he viewed himself as a stronger presenter than his colleague.
But as I recently wrote, men on stage with women have to be keyed into certain gender-related issues—or risk being perceived as boorish. And that’s particularly true during a presentation about the lack of gender equality in the workplace.
Mr. Schmidt’s interruptions not only stepped on his core message about the need for greater gender equality in the tech industry, but generated a bevy of negative headlines, such as these:
CBS San Francisco: “Google’s Eric Schmidt Called Out For Repeatedly Interrupting Woman Tech Leader During Diversity Talk At SXSW”
The Verge: “Google executive Eric Schmidt, man, makes total ass of himself at SXSW”
Slate: “Google Chairman Gets Called Out by His Own Employee for Interrupting a Female Panelist at SXSW”
That said, interrupting your fellow panelists can occasionally be appropriate during panel discussions. In fact, some crosstalk can help electrify an otherwise soporific conversation.
Just remember that the audience is judging not only your words and your delivery, but the manner in which you interact with your fellow panelists. Be judicious with your interruptions, save them for the moments that truly matter, and work to contain your enthusiasm every time your id feels the need to express itself.
Photo credit: Gisela Giardino via Wikimedia Commons
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Perhaps it’s just the men in my life, but I find that men ALWAYS interrupt women. They may also interrupt other men, but I don’t notice it as much. This is part of the difference between how men and women communicate, and I agree with you wholeheartedly that men must be made aware of this tendency and curb it, especially in presentations, board rooms and anywhere else they are on an equal playing field with women. However, I also think women should be taught to interrupt and take back the floor when this happens. Women tend to be more polite than men, and this does not serve in this type of scenario.
You’re right about avoiding the perception of bad behaviour, but I think it’s extremely unfair to observe this and immediately ascribe it to a man interruption a woman because she’s a woman. There could be, as you mention, any number of reasons for it. Some people – men and women (and I include myself in this) – have a speaking style that is easy to interrupt. It took me years to realize this was why it happened to me and I’ve adapted my style to prevent it. Some people also habitually interrupt people because they’re rude, arrogant, self-centered, etc. Again, men and women. This was also in a panel discussion, which is a pretty unique form of communication that I’d hesitate to use to draw larger conclusions.
I’m not saying pretend there’s no gender factor, but let’s be careful about jumping on people with accusations and assumptions that are just as likely to be off base as they are on target, and ones that can unfairly smear their character on top of that.
Kevin,
I agree with you entirely. I tried to make that clear in my post by citing three other possible reasons for his interruptions other than sexism. We simply can’t know whether his actions were a reflection of overt sexism, an unconscious bias, or something completely unrelated to gender.
That said, the media coverage focused squarely on sexism — so given the media coverage that seems rather inevitable in these situations, it’s best to be aware of and guard against the gender dynamics that are so often at work in these cases.
Based on your comment, I suspect we’re on the same page on all of that.
Thanks, as always, for leaving a comment!
Brad
I have a couple of comments to make about this. First, to Deborah’s point, I’ve seen plenty of men interrupt other men, as well. Senior managers are lousy listeners in general; they didn’t get where they are by being reticent about offering an opinion. They always want to be the smartest person in the room. That being said, there are definitely gender differences. When I’ve worked for men, I’ve found them to be lousy listeners in general. My female bosses were much better at it.
But more to the spirit of Brad’s post, I think it’s important to remember that the message isn’t just what you say but how you say it. How you dress, how you act, how you gesture, your intonation, your overall behavior–it’s all part of the message. Senior leaders think they only need to memorize talking points, when in fact they need to pay attention to everything they do when they’re in front of an audience. THAT’S the real reason to practice a speech or practice media interaction on a routine basis–not because you don’t know what you’re saying, but because you might not be aware of how you are saying it.
There is actually a sociolinguistic study on this phenomenon. The idea was that women talk more than men, because that’s the stereotype, right? But lo and behold! The study showed it’s the other way around! The men not only spoke for longer periods than the women, they also kept interrupting the women. The women were forced to speak faster in order to be able to say what they wanted, before getting interrupted. The men were not interrupted, and so took their time and spoke slowly. But when the men were asked about their perception of the conversations, they were convinced the women spoke much more than the men!
There was actually a similar study done on young children in a classroom. The teacher was asked to give both genders the exact same amount of time to speak and answer questions. After the class was over, the boys went up to the teacher and complained that the girls were allowed to speak so much more than the boys!
I guess that shows you can never really trust your peception of things. If you are a sexist, you might not always be aware of it yourself.
This is a necessary topic to discuss for those of us occasionally in the media.
Here, I observe two things: 1) an serial interrupter, and 2) accepting counterpart. The interrupter needs to chill out and the counterpart needs to amp it up.
Regards,
Paul