Leadership Denied - Why Women of Color Are Not Surviving Institutions - And What We Can Do About It
It’s been a busy few months. I celebrated turning 50 years old and I’m so excited for all the possibilities of the next half of the century of my life. But I needed to take a beat to share some observations with you.
In the last few years I’ve been coaching, mostly women of color leaders. These are women who are stepping into new positions of leadership - often following a white leader, or seasoned leader/founder. In that three years' time, more than half of the women I’ve coached have left their leadership positions; the other half are struggling to maintain their health and well-being in very challenging circumstances. Some of these women were forced out of their organizations. Some made a deliberate choice to leave. One hundred percent of these women were not or aren't getting their needs met inside of their institutions and in their roles. While I realize that each of these women are individuals in terms of their needs, values, and situations, there are some persistent themes. I want to share those themes so that if you’re reading this and you recognize any of the patterns, you can work to address them. Otherwise, we are going to continue to see the attrition of women of color leaders from institutions and with that, the loss of the cultural wisdom, emotional intelligence, and adaptive leadership our organizations desperately need.
Tokenizing: I know that diverse representation is currently under attack by all of the systems, e.g., affirmative action. But even before the unjust decision of the SCOTUS majority, women of color were being hired as token figureheads to leadership positions. And they were charged with not only doing the full-time work of CEO, executive director, COO, or President but with their hire, it was also assumed that they would fix all of the white-dominant, patriarchal stuff happening in our organizations. So essentially here’s how it’s going - Hey, highly qualified Black woman leader, we’re going to hire you to be the CEO of this organization and do all of the things that the job requires - development, strategy, people management, vision setting, etc. And by the way, we also expect you, and you alone, to fix thirty-plus years of deep seeded inequities in the organization. As you might imagine, this is a recipe for failure. Even if most of these women are working 70-hour weeks (and many are), it is impossible that they can do the job well that they were hired for on paper and, simultaneously, fix every broken aspect of systems and culture in the organization. In some cases, these women are the only women of color or one of a few in the organization, and the bench they have to work with isn’t that diverse. So, not only are these women isolated in their leadership, they’re expected to perform miracles in an unrealistic timeline.
Assumed Leadership Style: As I mentioned, a lot of women of color leaders are following the leadership of long-tenured male or white or a combination of both white and male leaders. And unless their predecessors were wholly enlightened self-aware individuals, their predecessor's leadership style was likely laden with patriarchal and white dominant characteristics. A style of leadership that is not only antithetical to how women of color lead, but also one that perpetuates the very systems and ways of being that most women of color are seeking to disrupt. However, the board of directors' view of leadership is tied to this status quo style we have all come to know and work under. That is a leadership style that is controlling, top-down, one-way thinking, and power over. When women of color leaders show up as relational leaders, collaborative, nurturing, and inclusive they’re often labeled as not in control, too soft, and without vision. When they show up as direct they’re told they’re combative and non-communicative. In short, there is no way for women of color to win when they’re constantly compared and measured to a way of leading that is not core to who they are or how they show up.
Lack of Support: I have had women of color tell me that requests for support for their capacity, learning, and growth as leaders are often outright denied or not given priority. Meanwhile, they look around and see their male or white counterparts given the resources for coaching, attending conferences, training, and support staff. One woman of color, Executive Director, told me that she pays everyone on her team a full salary and benefits, except herself. One woman was required to do coaching by her board to be a ‘team player’, while in the same organization, other white women and male leaders continuously bullied peers and folks they supervised with zero accountability to that behavior. Finally, multiple women of color leaders have expressed that their decisions and strategies are continuously questioned and or undermined by white staff and board members, particularly by white women. If organizations are going to expect women of color to carry the mantle of leadership for organizations and simultaneously dismantle systems of oppression within those institutions, they should also be prepared to fully resource that leadership with a value-based salary, benefits, wellness, coaching, training, and a supportive team.
So what do we do about this behavior? Here is my list of “Things to Do Before Your Institution Hires or Promotes a Woman of Color Into a Leadership Position”….
Make sure the organization interrogates the job description, salary, and contract through a lens of racial and gender equity. Don’t add anything to that job description that should be held by the full staff and leadership team, e.g., diversity, equity, and inclusion work, organizational development, and culture building. Don’t conflate the job with multiple positions that your organization needs to fill - e.g., CEO/Development Director or President/Chief of Staff.
Whatever compensation range you were considering, times it by at least 1.5, and make it transparent in the job posting. Don’t ask about the previous salary in the hiring process because 100% of the time, women of color applicants have historically been underpaid.
Ensure the benefits package also includes a professional development fund that is flexible and at the discretion of the leader to use as they see fit. Baseline that fund at a minimum to include the cost of a full year of coaching and leadership training/conference with travel expenses.
Make sure the person has the resources to hire their own full-time administrative support person.
During the hiring process, have a conversation with the woman of color about their leadership style, what they need to be successful, and what have been current and historical challenges in the organization. Hiring is a two-way process - this allows the leader candidate to gauge fit and values alignment with the organization and the hiring body to understand if they can commit to what the leader candidate needs to be successful.
Lastly, but extremely important, the board and hiring team need to do their own unlearning around white dominant and patriarchal leadership and own any hurt or harm it's been complicit in to ensure harmful patterns of behavior or systems are dismantled and not replicated.
For women of color leaders, I ask you what else would you add to this list? Please email me at maya@mandalachangegroup.com so I can share a more fully curated list with the organizations I work with.
