Whale Hunting Women

In this Whale Hunters classic, Barbara Weaver Smith notes that many of our  most successful clients have been companies where women are in charge as owners, CEOs, or shamans (in the Whale Hunters glossary, the “shaman” is a sales vice president or manager).

And that’s not coincidental. Women are socialized to excel at all of the traits that a whale hunting village requires. Just a few of these requirements include a collaborative culture, a sense of teamwork, an affinity for cooperation and joint venture, and a commitment to teaching and mentoring. These traits are in contrast to a culture of internal competition, a “do it yourself” mode, an affinity for top-down leadership, and an expectation that everyone is in charge of his or her own learning.

Not to say that men don’t exhibit the critical whale-hunting skills of an efficient village—it’s only that culturally we nurture and reward those talents in women far more than we do in men. Yet to close big deals in today’s global business environment requires, more than ever, the studied practice of listening, aligning, and empathizing.

Women are particularly good at these skills. At the same time, we may need to hone our competitive hunting skills. This book is about women who hunt, regardless of what they are hunting in their careers.

Chapters include:

1. How Women Hunt Whales
2. Only a Minnow (In a Sea of Whales)
3. Small Fish Hunting Whales
4. Radical Culture: Take a Rival to Lunch
5. Radical Culture: Money is Cheap
6. Radical Culture: Kill Some Commandments
7. Who Do You Trust?
8. Fast Times
9. Hanging from Your Own Rope
10. Whale Hunting Resolutions

We hope you’ll enjoy this eBook and share it with your team, both women and men!