Despite the fact that organizations and teams are becoming increasingly racially diverse, race has become one of the most polarizing topics to discuss, leaving many otherwise competent leaders struggling to respond adequately. Because organizational inclusion efforts can only go so far as leaders themselves are able to go, Anima Leadership created leader labs for BIPOC and white leaders to develop their leadership skills in like-identity environments, recognizing the challenges are different depending on one’s racial identity. The BIPOC Leader Lab meets every week for six months, while the EDI Lab for White Leaders meets monthly for the whole year.
The conversations from 2023’s labs have been deep, rich and transformative…and full of applicable insights for leaders of all identities. Here are some of the best.
BIPOC Leader Lab Secrets
Most of us feel nervous about sharing our experience
Because of the shared and ongoing experience of not being believed, scapegoated or plain out rejected, leaders of colour are often hesitant about speaking up about the ways in which we experience discriminatory behaviors and policies. The more elite the level of leadership position we occupy—which usually means we’re surrounded by more white leaders—the more likely we are to encounter this pushback.
We can’t be waiting for the invite to come from white people because white supremacy is not built to issue invitations for people of colour. Instead, we need to develop assertiveness. Finding a way to enter the conversation is an important and innovative skill set to survive and also transform organizational cultures. The more we use our voices, the more we open the door to those coming behind us.
We want diverse and fluid cultural norms (rather than default whiteness norms)
We don’t want to merely inhabit white norms (read: perfectionist, non-relational, quiet, politie) in order to be effective leaders. It’s not about white supremacy culture being inherently bad, but where are the places to give up the stage and allow different norms (ways of doing and being) to also take centre stage?
We commit to the parts of ourselves which are differently coded and stand up for them: eg. assertiveness, slower pace of doing, listening deeply, etc. The more diverse intelligence is shared, the stronger the whole system becomes.
Code-shifting is a survival tactic
Code shifting from our own authentic way of being and communicating in our culture of origin to white supremacist culture can feel necessary, but also exhausting. Being unable to show us as our whole selves means that we are also not able to be the best leaders we can be.
We ask that others who don’t understand our insider cultural norms either ask or respectfully leave us alone. For example, African American vernacular may be something not everyone understand—but it’s also not for everyone.
We struggle with racial and other forms of bias as well
We each have work to do unlearning different forms of racial bias. For example, South Asian and East Asian and Indigenous folks need to name and unlearn anti-Black racial bias. While this came up in our conversations as an edgy topic, it was also powerful to to name in an interracial group. These are not conversations we feel comfortable having in white-dominant space and part of why the BIPOC Leader Lab was so powerful.
There’s also a common misconception that just because someone is racialized they are racially literate! Life experience is important but does not equal expertise. Even BIPOC leaders can benefit from comprehensive racial equity training.
We are much more than (just) victims
The gifts of facing systemic oppression often include greater sensitivity to power dynamics, greater resiliency (especially around issues of power and marginalisation) and sharper skill development, key skills for leaders of all identities. This was also an important conversation in the BIPOC Leader Lab, and one we can’t have in white dominant spaces where we’re often left defending or proving that we face marginalisation in the first place.
Seeing what we gain and develop along with what we lose is important in owning our agency and honing our skills as BIPOC Leaders.
EDI Lab for White Leader Secrets
Trust the process and don’t try to “fix” too early
Real change requires strong relationship, but white supremacy values product over process and solution over relationship. Large institutions have prioritized compliance with human rights rules over substantive change. There is a longstanding pattern of white-bodied people reinforcing their identity through rescuer/victim dynamics.
We need to approach race and racism from a different tempo and objective. Centering relationships and collaborative models of problem solving is the path towards transformative praxis.
Learning to repair is key to strong relationship
Experiencing rupture or tension in a relationship can sometimes feel like a painful surprise—evidence that we’re wrong or hopelessly flawed. Fearing conflict with BIPOC colleagues can impede the development of authentic relationships. It’s important to remember that white supremacy culture is conflict incompetent. Disagreement can be mistaken for aggression or rejection in white supremacy culture.
Instead, white leaders can focus on becoming conflict resilient. Expect conflict. Expect that relationships will rupture. The key skill is to learn how to repair, voice your own vulnerability, hear feedback and learn to make commitments to strengthen relationships moving forward.
The dominant culture does not model conflict resiliency. White supremacy gets stronger when we fail to openly address conflict. Anti-racism requires us to model conflict competence and relational resiliency.
Reject perfectionism in your expectations of relationships
White folks can sometimes fall into a trap of seeing their personal and working relationships with BIPOC folks as a reflection of their anti-racist prowess. That can unintentionally reinforce a kind of objectification in relationships, where BIPOC colleagues are symbols of our own personal development rather than our friends and colleagues. Signs that this could be happening include instances of trying to “impress” BIPOC colleagues or taking conflict in an inter-racial relationship extra personally.
Being conflict resilient doesn’t mean every inter-racial relationship needs to be super close. It’s okay to disagree. It’s okay to have a professional relationship that is more functional than affectionate. We need to temper our expectations of relationships with BIPOC folks; consider how having varying levels of closeness with colleagues is actually a sign that you’re in authentic relationship. Not every relationship with BIPOC colleagues will thrive. That’s okay. Keep going.
This also applies to the relationship with ourselves and our own learning process, and allowing ourselves to make mistakes as we work toward racial equity and justice.
Our relationship to the land is central to our anti racism
White supremacy culture values capital over community. White-bodied folks in North America in particular have been groomed to self actualize through home ownership. We are told that pioneers are our ancestors, we sometimes recognize street names as those that also adorn our family trees. Our relationship to the land is the context in which we have been trained to judge success, security, belonging, and national identity. Cultivating a relationship to the land beyond the idea of private property and capital is part of an anti-racist praxis.
Anti-racism and anti-colonial work is ongoing
We need to redefine our timelines. So many of us have been trained to itemise skill sets and accomplish in the name of credentialization and mastery. Anti-racist anti-colonial work is about a redefinition of the status quo. It is a central focus of our professional practice, not unlike budget review and quarterly planning. We need to build in room for failure, and we need to expect to never be finished this work.
Emotional fragility will be part of the process. This may feel hard but minoritized identities have been far more exhausted and for far longer. We can do hard things. Onward.
An invitation for all leaders
Creating equitable and inclusive work environments is no longer just a nice thing to do, it’s an organizational necessity: do you have the knowledge and skills to foster diversity and build inclusion in your work? If you’d like some support, consider applying to join us for the 2024 BIPOC Leader Lab or the EDI Lab for White Leaders.
Annahid Dashtgard
CEO and Co-Founder, Anima Leadership
Annahid has a Masters in Adult Education and has trained in various psychological modalities to understand the root of systems change in human consciousness. She has spend more than two decades consulting, educating, coaching and writing on EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) issues across both public and private sectors.
Emma Lind
Senior Educator
Emma has spent the better part of the last twenty years teaching and researching whiteness as a way of being and knowing, but it wasn’t until moving into fat activism that she really found the heartbeat in JEDI work. Her PhD (Carleton, 2021) focused on whiteness, settler colonial identity, and urban life, and her current teaching and writing is primarily on weight stigma in health care.
