The Diversity in Local Government Leadership Network recently hosted another thought-provoking, and empowering session. Guest speakers from across the local government leadership spectrum came together to discuss everything from women in the workplace to intersectionality at leadership level.
The panel consisted of several women in leadership positions, who spoke about the challenges faced by women, and in particular women of colour on their professional journeys. The individual and quite personal stories shared by the panel demonstrated immense resilience and strength.
Challenging prototypes of leadership
Women face a number of challenges in leadership roles, including structural barriers and institutional mindsets. This is only compounded for women from ethnic minorities.
Nadira Hussain, chief executive at the Society for Innovation Technology and Modernisation (Socitm) highlighted the traditional family structure and how roots of Asian cultures can play a major part in shaping a female's professional career; sometimes preventing Asian women from thriving professionally.
The panellists also touched upon the everyday pressures of microaggressions, and the impact these can have on realising your professional ambitions. For women, and those from diverse backgrounds, they are expected to bend themselves to fit the traditional mould of leadership – rather than shaping what it means to be a leader around their authentic, true self.
Another common challenge is being denied well-deserved opportunities despite having the education and skills to succeed. Being passed over for promotion or opportunity in favour of male, straight or white colleagues was something several of our panellists had experienced, inhibiting them from getting the right exposure and experience to progress their careers.
Our panellists agreed there was far more to be done to expand the definition of ‘being a leader'.
Intersectionality in leadership
Intersectionality and leadership go hand-in-hand when it comes to achieving success in diversity and inclusion initiatives and succeeding as an organisation. A multitude of studies have shown that more diverse leadership teams deliver better outcomes.
Intersectionality acknowledges everyone has unique experiences and, as a result, levels of privilege and oppression differ vastly based on multiple aspects of socio-economic and cultural identity. Many of the leaders on the forum come from very different backgrounds and consequently have very different experiences. What organisations need to be conscious of are that some forms of oppression are more damaging and disempowering than others for different sets of people. This was pointed out by Abrilli Phillip, director of education and learning at Lambeth LBC.
The audience at the forum felt we need to do more in local government to encourage leaders from different backgrounds to step up and step forward. Cultural competence and understanding are absolutely key to this and should be more deeply embedded in the workplace.
Mental health and wellbeing
It is an often mentioned fact: it can be lonely at the top. For people from diverse communities, this loneliness can be exacerbated by not being able to be their authentic self in the workplace or being the only person from their background in a leadership position.
Melanie Medley, director of HR at Lambeth LBC, said: ‘It's important to choose your battles. Preserving your mental health and wellbeing is hard in a top-table role. Being authentic, proud, and vocal about your personal identity is essential to feel at peace with yourself, rather than having to constantly fight mental battles about who you are in the workplace.'
Ms Medley went on to say that sometimes, you will need to make bold decisions about salary expectations and job title – in order to preserve your mental health in an organisation that is not right for you. She felt it was more important to have a higher purpose in taking up a role and sticking to your personal values, ethics and principles, than having the best salary or job title on offer.
When considering mental health in the workplace, our panellists all agreed the importance of support systems and networks cannot be understated when tackling equalities, diversity and inclusion.
Many diverse individuals suffer from imposter's syndrome. A recent Forbes study conducted in the US found that while 70% of the workforce will at some stage feel imposter's syndrome, it is far more likely to affect women and those from diverse communities.
Our panellists suggested people must not be afraid to seek help and ask questions from others, both within and outside their organisation and community. Equally, assistant chief executive at Brent LBC, Shazia Hussain, mentioned that allies, organisations and people in leadership positions have a duty to ‘actively listen to what is being said' by their diverse employees. Embedding the ideas and experiences of your workers is essential in making them stronger, tackling imposter's syndrome and empowering individuals to rise through the ranks.
Moving forward: success, mantra and strategies
Finally, our panellists shared some of their personal strategies to success, empowerment, and greater leadership, moving forward with perseverance, persistence, determination, conviction, and always keeping the end goal in mind.
Director of legal and governance at Hackney LBC, Dawn Carter-McDonald, quoted James Baldwin: ‘Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it.'
In order to achieve greater diversity and inclusion in local government we need to ensure the existence of soundboards and safety nets.
An interesting point was to not be impulsive and refrain from reacting on emotions, instead stopping to think, and asking for advice from other people before taking a step.
Finally, being genuine and vocal about your identity – and using your voice and privilege to empower others in your community – constitute some of the key takeaways from the panel of local government leaders!
It will take sustained time and effort to resolve the many issues around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Change is slow but it is taking place. Consistent efforts aimed at shifting mindsets and challenging structures will bring great outcomes, sooner or later.
Dawar Hashmi is the chair of the Diversity in Local Government Leadership Network, and director of executive search across government and public sector at Penna. If you would like to speak to him about the work of the network, or to be involved in future forums, get in touch via dawar.hashmi@penna.com
