In fact, whole process was (thank goodness) totally painless, even afterwards. All I had to do was rest my voice and not speak for 48 hours! I’ll also be undertaking voice lessons to ensure I protect this valuable instrument.

Now to men reading this, avoiding opening your mouth for that period of time would probably not bother you. However, for a female it is a very hard thing to do. We like to talk in case you hadn’t noticed.

According to research, women speak around 30,000 (that’s right guys) words a day and men (if you’re lucky) speak around 10,000. So that’s a ratio of 3:1.

Interesting, isn’t it? So how does this work in daily life?

She Says – “He just doesn’t listen”

He Says: “She talks too much”

In their best-selling books “Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps” and “Why Men, Lie and Women Cry”, Barbara and Alan Pease say:

Women Talk, Talk and Talk " When a woman talks she often uses indirect speech. This means she hints at what she wants or infers things.

Women's indirect speech has a purpose - it builds relationships and rapport with others by avoiding aggression, confrontation or discord.

When women use indirect speech with other women there is seldom a problem - women are sensitive to picking up real meaning. It can, however be disastrous when used on men.

When you first start out in business, you will no doubt do most things yourself, yet to continue trying to keep control of every task that needs doing by handling everything yourself, you’ll never be able to grow your business successfully. You’ll run out of time and also be limited by your own skillset.

The same applies when you commence a new management role, you want to make a good impression and show that you are capable of handling all your responsibilities without asking for any assistance. That’s fine if you can manage doing that effectively and maintain your sanity. However, if you are having difficulty and suffer in silence, other people…your team, colleagues and clients will eventually notice anyhow.

If you are a business owner or manager with a team of people, you’ll go crazy trying to do everything yourself without some form of assistance…and being a good manager, your role is to manage and develop your people. Together you will achieve more… more productivity and profit or whatever your purpose is.

When you have people working for you, you’ll find that managing your people will take up a lot of your time.

When you’re at this level you do need some form of assistance whether it be a Virtual Assistant (personal assistants who work off-site in their own business and whom you can hire on as ‘as needs’ basis (see www.asecretary.com.au) or hire a person to assist you on-site whether it’s part-time or full-time.

You may also have a suitable candidate in your office right now who is ready to step in…just make sure they have skills you require. It’s no good recruiting within your organisation unless person has attributes needed unless you are prepared to invest additional time and money to get them up to speed... and even after all that effort, they may still be unsuitable.