Don’t be silenced in your career

Welcome to The Inbox Coach nudge, a small nudge to help you stay on track with your career development. This week I want to talk about what happens when your voice isn’t heard in your workplace, and you aren’t empowered even when on paper it looks like you should be.

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“However benevolent men may be in their intentions; they cannot know what women want and what suits the necessities of women's lives as well as women know these things themselves.” - Millicent Fawcett

I hope you will have seen in The Inbox Coach this month that empowerment at work is so much more than what an individual can control, which is often how it is talked about. This week I want to look at what happens when it seems like you are in a position of power, but you don’t have the ability to effect a change.

Being silenced

Being in a position of power doesn’t guarantee that you will have your voice heard. This week in Prime Minister’s Questions the incident of racist and sexist comments against Diane Abbot was a topic of discussion. Diane stood up 46 times to speak but wasn’t called by the speaker.? Who would be better placed to talk about the impact that these disgusting comments had than the person they were directed at? According to the speaker of the house, 46 other people.

What was even more horrible to watch was people accepting the apology for these comments from the tory donor who made them and asking for forgiveness of him. To be clear, he apologised for being rude and denied being sexist and racist, so he didn’t really apologise. It was horrible to watch, and I can’t imagine what it felt like to be Diane Abbot, or indeed a black woman witnessing her voice being silenced in real time.

This happens in all sorts of workplaces. People are technically in a position of power and leadership but there are others blocking them from having their voices heard. When it is called out there is always a seemingly plausible reason for the oversight and the person complaining is seen as the one causing a problem. How are you supposed to be empowered in this sort of environment?

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Taking a stand

When coaching clients bring these sorts of challenges to a session it can be hard to deal with. Coaching focuses on the individual and what they can control. In deciding how to deal with this type of situation I think it’s important to recognise the barriers outside of your control.

I would never want a client to think that if they just worked a bit harder, spoke in a different way or behaved differently that these problems would go away. When the problem is the culture of the organisation or people in a position of power abusing that power, there is a limit to what an individual can do to change the status quo. My hope for my clients is that they can do their best to navigate a system that isn’t set up to support them, find sources of support while they do that and if they don’t succeed, they don’t feel it is a failing on their part, but that of the system.

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“However benevolent men may be in their intentions; they cannot know what women want and what suits the necessities of women's lives as well as women know these things themselves.” – Millicent Fawcett

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I’ve chosen to feature Millicent Fawcett as the inspiration this week. She was fighting for the right for women to have the vote and be represented in parliament over 100 years ago and the fact that we are still facing challenges related to gender in politics is very striking. The treatment Diane Abbott faced this week is not new or isolated, but something those in a position of power have been doing for centuries to prevent a wider range of voices being heard.

Whilst this quote is about men, I think the sentiment applies to any situation where people in a position of power to make a change are not representative of the people they are helping. I have had many brilliant leaders throughout my career, but the most successful ones are those who don’t think they know best when it comes to what other people need to thrive, they ask and include them.

?My experience as a white woman who lives with a chronic illness is different to people of other races, genders, abilities and all the other characteristics that make us unique. It is important that I advocate for myself when I feel others might be speaking for me, but also looking at the power I hold that may be excluding others.

In my role as a chair of trustees for a charity, I am constantly asking what do our beneficiaries think, feel, do and need. How can their voices be represented by the organisation and decisions made that consider their experiences. It isn’t just about being aware of what other people need but inviting them into the places where decisions are made and ensuring they have the power to make a change that is beneficial. ?We can all look around at the world we have influence over, whether that is our own team in an organisation or 100s of people and see if we are helping or hindering the voices of people to be heard.

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?Much of what I’ve witnessed over the last week has made me angry. Diane Abbot may have her flaws, don’t we all, but as a pioneering woman in politics, she was the first black female MP, she has done so much to champion the rights of others and has faced an incredible amount of abuse for doing so.

In 2017 she faced 10 times the amount of abuse on Twitter than any other MP, and almost half of all abuse directed at female MPs. When I talk about empowerment it is so much more than feeling confident to take up space in the world, it is about being able to step into those spaces and be welcomed and have your voice heard, and for that to happens so much more needs to change.

?I’ll be back next week with my final thoughts on what it means to be empowered at work

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See you then

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Laura

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P.S You can access all previous editions of The Inbox Coach and get exclusive subscriber offers when you sign up?here