"Professional Purity Culture" and Generational Shifts in Leadership

I work in the strange realm called leadership….and I recently gave a sermon on leadership for my faith community. Here's what applies to the professional world -- and I believe it is highly relevant to both. How we lead is how we attract members and employees and opportunities...and that's how we grow.?

As part of a recent grant proposal, I had to do a lot of research about board recruitment and retention, and what I found is that boards, both non-profit and religious, often mimic the norms of upper class corporate boards, historically run by white men. I do not know why, except that many religious organizations are run by men and many charities are started by their female counterparts…so in order to be taken seriously, to add structure and gravity, they use things like Robert’s Rules of order, agenda items, and subcommittees.

Not to say these are wrong per se, but they default to professional standards and are worth examining how that translates to our work cultures.?Some of the themes, it caused me to reflect on what “professionalism” looks like in our culture.

We have a chasm between professionalism and diversity, and we can’t close that unless we examine why. Yes, a long career of experience matters but we also have to give credit to those living their lives now, gaining experience and being part of our community. I am not advocating for only young people or people in the midlife stretch, but a lack of diversity related to leadership means that certain voices are harder to hear.?

How can we create welcome? How can we create belonging?

I think it has to start with dismantling what I call “professional purity culture,” which can include how we look, how we dress, and how we behave. The origin of the term purity culture is from evangelical Christianity, with strong emphasis on modesty, abstinence from sex, and strict gender roles. It’s damaging in multiple ways, and I certainly do not ascribe to the tenets. However, professional purity culture is about perceptions of working norms…that may appear in how we prepare for a job interview, how we speak, our ways of communicating. It might be outside of the “work environment” but influence the events we attend, who is in our social circles and the ways we participate in our communities.??

It’s about being “acceptable” so that you can gain access to more opportunities.?

And, throughout history who decides what’s acceptable is the people with the most power. Leaders who have the power to dismiss or elevate, to fund, to hire, to fire, to create new initiatives and to influence others.?

Is there space for people to bring their authentic selves or do we require them to change to fit in? Have we adapted to diverse ways of thinking, acting, and interacting, or do we hold onto the ways things have always been done and pressure others to conform to those? If we want younger people to lead, can we let them lead how they need to, so it suits them in the future??

Rather than change because someone wants to be a leader and asks for an accommodation directly, I believe we should critically and proactively examine:

• Days, times and places for meetings and consider varying them
• Examine in-person and virtual meeting norms and their benefits / disadvantages
• The purpose and length of meetings,
• Leadership roles, terms and commitments
• Who we recruit for leadership potential?
• The ways we communicate in person and electronically

It should be like the transition from serving one meal and assuming it’s fine for everyone, to how we consistently ask people, “Do you have any food restrictions?” We do that to be inclusive, to people with food allergies, vegetarians and vegans, and any dietary restrictions for religious or health reasons.?

Anti-assumptive culture is that we ask questions instead of relying on assumptions.?

We can take the lead from others on how they feel about it or what level of disclosure they would like.

We cannot attract diversity without being open to new ways of being.?

The younger generations are customizing life aspirations and the paths towards those – we know these are questions that we should each answer for ourselves, and not assume for others.?Professionalism should be about results and effort, training and competency, not fitting in a box defined by others.

Let’s make space for more people to belong. That means, not waiting until someone asks us to change, and then we change to accommodate THEM. That is not welcome, or belonging.?

• What values should be the priority here?
• How can we develop diverse leadership, both invisible and visible differences?
• Can we humble ourselves to learning about differences we don’t understand?

What does leadership look like in the future? Whatever we want it to. But we must commit to fearless examination of who belongs here and how we ask others to fit in.