Testing the Unknown
We started with the notion that BME* women needed to be confident before being able to become senior leaders.
After speaking with professional BME women — we spoke to customer service advisors, solicitors, marketing managers, IT professionals, charity workers, legal advisors, and council workers… we realised that the assumption was rubbish. The users we spoke to brought up trust as a barrier to them accessing senior leadership roles.
First of all, they are interested in becoming decision-makers, and senior leaders in their fields and they have the confidence. However, being undermined does have its impact. Even the most confident person will be worn down if they are constantly diminished. It’s just a fact.
So then, we come to the question, how do you build trust?
I listened to a talk on how to build trust between police officers and women so that we feel safe. One of the points I took away was to use evidence to highlight issues that are being ignored. I wondered how it would apply in this space of BME women and senior leaders.
One of the respondents to my senior leader survey responded that they didn’t think that anyone would want their expertise. Which kind of sent me down a new path of thinking. Are there senior professionals i.e. leaders who don’t know how to offer their expertise because they haven’t been asked?
Perhaps I should define the characteristics of a senior leader, a seasoned professional and maybe we don’t need the senior leaders as defined by the hierarchy of the traditional workplace.
CAST supporting us through the project asked how they could help with our ideas. Joyce Borgs named my fears this week. “…how much senior leaders see engaging with your solutions as a priority.”
How are we going to get senior leaders to engage? I have been mulling over how to get senior leaders to buy in and want to contribute. without only depending on their goodwill or their EDI commitment which is a result of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.
This weeknote has made me realise that it’s not only your CEOs and other typical senior leadership roles that need to be part of this but it could be much more than that.
I wonder if we can implement an ‘ant army’ model. I’m not sure this is a model but that’s what comes to mind. Have you seen a line of ants industrially passing a particle from one to the other to another to another, what if this was knowledge and trust making its way through organisations?
This coming week I’m going to think about how can I create this ant army model.
*Black & Minoritised Ethnic
