Healthy Female Competition Vs. Manipulation: How to Tell the Difference

How can you be competitive in your workplace without being manipulative?

Let’s face it, in today’s work environment, women still have to work harder than their male counterparts to get ahead in business. While some women will do this by any means necessary, I just can’t condone that and I believe that getting ahead by being honest, intuitive and strong beats being scheming and manipulative any day. But sometimes the area between competition and manipulation can be a little gray, so how can you tell the difference? 

Manipulative Women:

• Wield their power over others
• Hold information as collateral in order to get what they want
• Twist the emotions of those around them in order to gain support
• Use guilt and fear to motivate employees 

Competitive Women:

• Use their power to empower others
• Share the information they have in order to get ahead
• Use natural, positive emotional responses to get the support that they want
• Motivate employees using positive reinforcement and rewards 

It can be easy enough to slip into some patterns of manipulative behavior at work. I’ll be honest here, if it didn’t work so well, women wouldn’t become manipulative in the first place. It’s important to always keep a clear head as you go about your business and remember to always stay positive. I’ve found that if you keep and open, positive frame of mind, it’s almost impossible to become manipulative. The more jaded you become, the more appealing leading by manipulation becomes. 

It’s also important to stay in touch with your intuition. Your gut is likely going to tell you when you’re doing something that doesn’t feel “right” or in line with your sense of business ethics. 

So here’s what you should do next, make a list of where and what you feel powerful in. Then decide if it is manipulative or competitive behavior. Once you do this, then please comment on what you discovered. Better yet, make the necessary changes and tell us about the before-and-after.