Strategically Communicating

One of the interesting things I noted in the reading was the idea of gender and how fairly glazed over it was. I took at gender communication class this past summer at PSU and one of the first things I learned — which was in contrast to the book — was that there are not just simply two genders and that it is not possible to simply lump people into one of two categories because that ultimately leads to more stereotypes and quite possibly the glass ceiling that women have experienced. Does that mean there is no glass ceiling for men and that all men are getting promoted? 

Another intriguing aspect of the book was the idea of setting goals. This seems obvious. You set goals if you run a 5K, take a class or do just about anything else. I can only speak to my work experiences, but the goal setting in the meetings I’ve been in have been almost non-existent or flawed, which is the exact opposite of how things should work. Most of the time, there would be a short-term goal, but a long-term goal would often become clouded due to a lack of benchmarks set or a clear plan. On top of this, there’s the idea of being in the meetings themselves that most people don’t like to begin with and if you mention that the goal-setting is awry, you could easily alienate yourself from co-workers. In turn, your workplace now becomes a less-friendly atmosphere.