THE WORKPLACE Charm isn't all women need

Women should be cautious about using sensuality at work, a career expert says.
WASHINGTON POST
Can women really get ahead by "pimping it up"?
That's what the successful female contestants on the reality-TV show "The Apprentice" contended recently. "Sex sells," one said with a shrug as they took on an assignment from Donald Trump to increase sales at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Times Square. The show's team of women donned teeny T-shirts and begged men on the street to join them for shots at the bar.
Won over men
Women increased revenue 31 percent over a comparable evening of the previous year, while the men's team, competing on a different night, increased sales 7 percent.
But when the women went to Trump's golf resort as their reward, Trump told them, "You're almost over the line." He said they are smart women who can probably win without being so darn sexual. What an idea.
"You would not become a president of one of Trump's companies this way," his female assistant said.
So is it true? Do attractive women who use their looks or sexuality to get noticed or to win a promotion or raise really not make it? Or can and do women use their sexuality to get ahead? Some believe the days of women using their (ick) feminine charms are long over. Others think they are just beginning as more women in today's workplace are much more comfortable with their feminine side, and use it.
Sex does sell, but only if the power is used for good, not evil, said Nicole Williams, president of Wildly Sophisticated Media Inc., a career-development company for young women. In her book, "Wildly Sophisticated: A Bold New Attitude for Career Success," Williams explains how women can make it in the wide world of work.
"Young women in particular have to be very conscious about how to use [their sexuality]. It is usable, but it doesn't exist alone," she said. "You can't make it if you're cute and flirtatious but stupid."
Don't cross the line
If you're going to use that feminine flair, watch the line and make sure you don't cross it. And you have to back up any sort of gender-based appeal with smarts, too. If you climb the higher peaks of corporate America, that sexuality is replaced with ideas.
Which, if you look more closely, is what the "Apprentice" vixens did that night. Yes, they vamped it up when they tried to pull in revenue at Planet Hollywood. But they focused on selling alcohol. Why? Because alcohol has a higher profit margin than anything else sold at restaurants.
The men, on the other hand, focused on selling Planet Hollywood merchandise. Not a big profit churner.
One woman in her twenties who works in sales for a Washington D.C.-based company said she believes it takes a bit of attractiveness to get ahead. "Of course people want attractive people," she said. "I don't think you even have to flirt. If you're attractive, you get more done," she said.
Can sabotage efforts
But using one's sexuality to get ahead in the workplace can be a way to fall behind, too. Lois P. Frankel, president of Corporate Coaching International, based in Pasadena, Calif., is the author of "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers" and "Quit Bein' a Girl: 77 Ways Women Win at Work." She knows a few things about how this can backfire.
A few months ago, a client came to Frankel and said she was excited because she got a man in her office to do something she wanted to move a project ahead. "I charmed the pants off him," she crowed to Frankel. Right away, the red flags went up.
"I knew she had misjudged it," Frankel said.
And she had. Recently this woman came back to Frankel. She was in big trouble. The man she "charmed the pants off" did what she wanted. But he also saw right through her. He told her boss that this woman was overly flirtatious, inappropriate and unprofessional. That got around. Colleagues have also lost respect for her.
The woman told Frankel her "strategy" backfired. But charming the pants off someone, alone, is not a strategy. Are the "Apprentice" women going to get wasted on shots every night at the bar? I don't think so. Yes, alcohol has a great profit margin. But they would need another strategy to drag consumers into the restaurant next time.
Real strategy
For the woman Frankel was coaching, it wasn't a strategy to charm the pants off someone. This man chose to do what she asked because it seemed like a good idea. And that should have been her strategy.
The women on "The Apprentice" had a smart idea, then put their smarts aside when they put on belly-baring shirts. So do they lose because they crossed the line, as Trump said? Or do they win, because they really pulled in more profits?
Trump answered that question. But it was still the women who went to his fancy golf resort and the men who stayed home, licking their wounds.