by Adwoa | Jan 15, 2024 | Health Care
As a woman of colour I had been tracking up through my large hospital quickly. I was the bright star in the first few years and has steadily taken on more and more responsibility. As I found my footing, I began to speak up more and more about health equity and inclusion in the workplace. I always knew there was a risk in doing this, but I felt I could handle the backlash by always minding my tone and approach and making myself invaluable. I was wrong. After years of delivering results, I asked my CEO how I might be able to track into a more senior role. Her feedback was blunt: I did not always “act the part” and this held me back from being seen as “VP material”. My CEO said this to me behind closed doors while championing EDI publicly. She had absolutely NO awareness of what she had just done.
The most important thing I have taught myself is to be prepared for biased feedback and to come prepared to speak up when it comes my way. I verbatim write out what my response will be so that I am not overwhelmed with how to respond in the moment.
I left. I knew in that moment I had to leave the organization. I took me about a year and half to actually go, but that say the wheels were set in motion.
by Adwoa | Dec 20, 2023 | Hardware & Networking
My boss and myself
I commenced in my role with significant access to my boss, with, at a minimum, weekly one-on-one meetings.
As time went on, the time dedicated to those meetings was reduced or the meeting itself was cancelled in its entirety.
Weeks could go by and I was no longer provided with a vehicle to provide important updates about the team/our work, to obtain guidance on critical decisions or to receive information that would inform what and how I/the team fulfilled its responsibilities.
I commit without fail to my one-on-one and team meetings. There is devoted time in the agenda for sharing, Q&A, updates (by everyone) and “unstructured” discussion.
I consciously listen, I ask questions, I follow-up, I acknowledge, I reward, I offer feedback and guidance.
I lost my voice and ended up believing that I had nothing important to say or to contribute to the organization. I left the company after a very short tenure.
by Adwoa | Dec 20, 2023 | Corporate Services
A client of the management consulting company where I worked, my colleague and myself
When we would come to present in front of the client and various departments within their workplace, our contact would say ‘the girls from (our company name) are here to present…He would smile and once said ‘oh I guess I shouldn’t call you that’.
With greater age and maturity, I would now likely say something.
We were professional women in our 30s. Because it was the client we didn’t feel like we could say anything in the event that it jeopardized our relationship with as he was one of the decision makers. While we knew we were good at what we did, it nevertheless diminished our value.
by Adwoa | Dec 20, 2023 | Featured, Nonprofit
Mistaking Colleagues’ Names – Interchanging Them
My team members and C-suite
The CEO used to confuse and call team members of the same ethnicity and gender the wrong name – using the name of another colleague. It didn’t just happen once or twice but consistently. One time, they even said ‘well it was hard to tell who you were on screen, so sorry that I called you by (the other colleague’s) name.
It made team members feel like they weren’t seen or valued as individuals or as employees. If it had only happened once or twice, then it wouldn’t have mattered but because it happened all the time, it became embarrassing.
As a leader, I didn’t know how to handle it. I should have had the courage to tell the CEO that it was being noticed as a consistent mistake but I didn’t want to make them uncomfortable and defensive.
