Why did Alex fail to receive the warm response he had hoped for?

As the new sales director for a national computer firm, Alex Gordon was looking forward to his first meeting with the company’s district managers. Everyone arrived on time, and Alex’s presentation went extremely well. He decided to end the meeting with the conversation about the importance of the district managers to the company’s plans. "I believe we are going to continue to increase our share of the market," he began, "because of the quality of the people in this room. The district manager is the key to the success of the sales representatives in his district. He sets the term for everyone else. If he has ambitious goals and is willing to put in long hours, everyone in his unit will follow his example." When Alex was finished, he received polite applauses, but hardly the warm response he had hoped for. Later he spoke with one of the senior managers. "Things were going so well until the end", Alex said disappointedly. "Obviously, I said the wrong thing." "Yes", the district manager replied. "Half of our managers are women. Most have worked their way up from sales representatives, and they are very proud of the role they played in the company’s growth. They don’t care at all about political correctness. But they were definitely surprised and distressed to be referred to as ’he’ in your speech. "