◆Watch Your Language

Female newcomers often give the wrong impression in the workplace because their tongue slips on matters that may seem trivial but can add up to a lot. One case in point is failure to call their boss or colleagues by their exact title. Song Mi-na (24), who recently joined a magazine, was given a drubbing when she called the editor a “team leader.” “Do you really think our company is a ‘team’?” the irate editor demanded. When women call their female boss by the familiar Korean term “sister” rather than one meaning “senior,” they give the impression that they can’t separate personal affairs from business.

Another pitfall is a habit of talking to everyone as if they were a friend from school. Yu Hee-jeong (25), now in her second year with her company, recalls she made her boss think she was cheeky when, early on, she responded to a joke the boss made by saying, “What?” Kim Seon-mi (23) is into her eighth month at work. She will not repeat the mistake she made once of sending a text message to her boss saying she was going to be late a little. “Who do you think I am?” the boss wanted to know. “Your friend?”

Conversation skills expert Lee Jeong-suk warns, “The workplace brings together people from different generations and cultural backgrounds, which means that even in less hierarchical organizations, you need to treat others politely if you want to be respected.”

◆It’s All in the Presentation

Kim Eun-young (alias, 26) is in her first year with an advertising company. During a meeting, an idea a male colleague proposed was adopted, to high praise from the participants, who called it “unique and interesting.” So it was, and it was Kim’s: she had proposed it in a meeting two months earlier. When she first talked about it, no one responded, but then her colleague put it in a different way, and suddenly it was embraced. In many cases, it’s how you deliver an idea rather than your actual ability that matters, experts say.

Shim Jae-woo, the CEO of SB Consulting and a presentation consultant, says women tend to make prepare their presentation very carefully and enunciate carefully, “but in many cases they fail to get their message across in an authoritative way because they talk too fast, speak long-windedly, talk too quietly or don’t make eye contact.” What they need, he says, is training to speak slowly and succinctly, make eye contact with their audience and express their opinion with confidence in front of unfriendly audience. Too much humility is the best way to reduce an audience’s confidence in what you say.

◆Don’t Ape the Male

Women should, however, avoid becoming mannish in the way they talk and behave as a way of surviving in an organization where men rule. Kang Hye-ryun, a business professor of Ewha Womans University, recalls an episode from her days as an office worker when she spoke sitting leaning to one side with both arms resting on the chair just like a man. It won her no admirers. “It’s important to fight it out in your own way rather than mimicking others,” she advises. Even in tricky negotiations, it’s best to speak your mind rather than try to catch your opposite number out, or, more generally speaking, better to be honest than to try too hard for the upper hand.

(englishnews@chosun.com )