Leadership emergence: gender, technology and inclusivity

I have been working on my innovation project this summer, a summer long project with a team of interns from all different departments and including interns in the field. My group consists of three interns in Miami and four interns at the National Executive Office.  Within our group, three of the seven of us have emerged as the strongest leaders. One intern in our group was a former patient and therefore has a lot of connections within the organization. She has taken it upon herself to be the organizer of many of the meetings and utilizes her project management background to keep our group organized. Her and I have been the strongest influences in the group and the loudest voices in making sure tour group stays on track. I have been the one to push the ideas further and make sure every single member of the group is heard and working towards the common goal. However one of the interns at the Miami office has also taken a charge in our group and has the drive to win and succeed.  This has been extremely important for the success of our group because I think it would be really easy for the people at the field offices to not zoom in to meetings and not respond to group messages or put in the work, but Angelica (the leader in Miami) makes sure our two groups work as one.

The other thing I wanted to mention was gender.  As of recently, ALSAC has reached about 75% female, which is awesome for me as I have so many amazing role models to look up to and learn from at the organization.  In one of our most recent meetings, I observed an interesting dynamic between genders. The room was packed with interns and employees, so packed that there were not enough chairs.  All the men in the room made sure to stand up and let the women sit around the table and they sat to the sides. They even made sure the interns had chairs. I am unsure if this is because of “southern hospitality” and gender roles that the men felt they needed to give up their seats, but nonetheless, it was very interesting. The women clearly commanded the room, which is different. I remember we read an article in theories class about how groups of all women are the most effective, so it was interesting to see a group of so many women and how the meeting was executed effectively. When I observed the police department for my theories final project, the woman who came in late stood in the corner and did not ask for a chair.  In this meeting, the roles seemed reversed as the strong women in the room decided that they had a seat at the table.

Another thing I have been noticing that is interesting in regards to leadership is the newest technology integration.  As an office, everyone uses Zoom to communicate with team members in the Field offices or with members who cannot be present at the meeting.  In my roommates innovation group, there is a clear disdain felt by her group members for the fact that she is at the National Executive Office and therefore has access to more resources which is causing a standstill in their productivity as a team. I think the people in the Field offices feel a little removed and are less likely to emerge as leaders in the meetings we have. One of the males at the meeting described above joined us on Zoom and it was interesting to observe the dynamic of the meeting when there are technological difficulties. The meeting becomes less productive, the people on the phone have less of an opportunity to emerge as a leader.

Lastly, I was a huge fan of the LGBTQ talk that we had the other day so I wanted to write about it as well.  I mentioned in other posts about the CEO Rick Shadyac’s push for diversity and inclusion, but he hasn’t executed it as nicely as he/his team did for the LGBTQ community.  My friends and I have been having discussions after about how the recent talks have made us feel (the Town Hall and the intern meeting) and how sometimes, even though the idea of bringing up the conversation is wonderful and comes from a loving place, they can be isolating for people and at times slightly cringe worthy. This one, however, was different.

To start, they played an informative video about the start of the gay rights movement discussing the Stonewall riots. I was blown away by this talk and left feeling amazing. The panel consisted of three ALSAC employees who are gay was led by someone on senior leadership who is also gay (instead of the CEO who is a straight white male). They spoke candidly about how they feel at ALSAC and what it is like to work at such an accepting organization. They also spoke about the hardships and the religious boundaries they encounter and answered questions about ways they thought ALSAC could improve in their quest to be a more diverse and inclusive organization in front of leadership and in front of a good majority of the company. They were incredibly open and vulnerable and I respect the leadership team for bringing a panel in front of the company in order to challenge them publicly and push them to be as inclusive as they possibly can.  At the end, the Executive Director of Marketing gave fabulous and inspiring closing remarks. Overall, I was very impressed with the panel and the leadership team and felt proud to be part of such an amazing and accepting organization.