February 12th, 2009
So, I am back on this issue of gender in the workplace…for a couple of reasons. I have recently joined a program called Defining Leadership by Men, which is offered by a really amazing organization here in Omaha, the Institute for Career Advancement Needs(ICAN). Part of the program has been learning about Emergenetics and analyzing our own Emergenetics profile. I have been interested in thinking styles and mental orientation for a few years and a good friend of mine introduced me to the work of Ned Hermann a couple of years ago and I include some of that information in the work that I do around diversity and inclusion.
One of the things that we have discussed is that the research shows that there are some different tendencies in thinking style based on gender. Nothing that applies to all members of a particular gender or anything that is exclusive to just one gender, but some real tendencies. Considering that, I keep coming back to what might be the real impact of having lopsided leadership?
I recently observed a short conversation that was about gender in the workplace and whether there was still any challenges based on gender and I was kind of amazed by the conversation. I cannot quite wrap my head around the idea that in a very much male dominated society where the vast majority of all senior leaders are male, we are not clear on the answer to that question. Not only was there some strong debate on the issue, some folks involved were actually making the case that it was the men that have it the worst.
It reminded me of the dynamics of privilege. People with privilege (whether it is based on gender, race, socio-economic status, orientation, nationality or any other aspect of social identity) largely get to define reality. For example if the population of Omaha is 90% white, and that white population says that there are no challenges regarding race in the community…then that becomes the big truth…regardless of what the racial / ethnic minority population might have to say. Privilege makes one the author of “the book of facts.”
It also reminded me of the dynamics of power, and how power and privilege can produce some bizarre outcomes. At the intersection of power and privilege, intentions (regardless of how good they are) can easily get twisted to deny privilege and preserve power. It takes a great humility, honesty, awareness and real dialogue to avoid that.
Just my opinion here of course, but rather than fighting to hold on to leadership, I think that as men we should be (and should have been) committed to re-inventing leadership as something that does not ever produce (or allow) such skewed results.
And on that same theme, I wonder if women as they come into more and more leadership roles will do a better job of being inclusive?