Women of Color Deserve Quality Professional Development

The post originated in Nonprofit Quarterly on April 23, 2024, written by Jamie Ricks. This is a repost, I am not the author.

Photo by Ogo Johnson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-holding-neck-staring-on-wall-1661837/

Throughout my 10-year career in the nonprofit sector, working as a program director in youth development and later as an operations director in philanthropy, professional development has often entailed a one- to two-hour webinar on cultivating relationships or a half-day session on best practices in program management and has always felt like punishment from those in charge. Such programs remind me of required summer reading—something to keep you busy that instructors never revisit during the school year.

The mandated “opportunities” are mainly designed to point out potential areas of improvement or “growth” for employees—but not management.

Meanwhile, those professional development sessions took valuable hours out of my workday. As a direct service provider, I knew that the clients I served would need me during those hours, and if I stepped away from my desk or phone, their needs wouldn’t be met. Losing those hours also meant that I would be working additional hours from home later that night.

It is difficult to take many of the trainings seriously when you know beforehand that the bulk of the information will not change the current policies or operating procedures of the organization.

To my surprise, in late 2023, I found a professional development opportunity that was not “summer reading” and was designed to help me grow as a professional—inside and outside of my work at the time. This opportunity was a three-day intensive workshop complete with pre-work and an online learning and resource platform.

Seeking Solidarity and Vulnerability

For a variety of reasons, those three days were amazing. First, it was inspiring to see so many women (about 40) along with two or three men in a workshop designed to help women grow as leaders. I commend the men in the room for being brave enough to enroll and show up. Second, the instructors were experts in their respective fields who talked candidly about their experiences. Some of them shared stories about how their childhoods shaped their work. Others talked about the discrimination they faced as women in the workplace. All the instructors offered to stay connected via email and LinkedIn and most upheld that promise. Finally, the topics that we engaged with focused on using our strengths and the strengths of those around us to create success. My favorite lessons transcended my role at the time and focused on building my network and identifying professional sponsors. Those lessons really hit home.

It only took me 10 years to understand the power of sponsorships. I know now and believe in the power of having a person who has excelled in their own career speak your name in rooms where opportunities are presented and being your professional advocate. This professional development opportunity drove all these points home. We completed a very intricate exercise where we mapped out our professional network, including our sponsors, mentors, and allies, and even separated our personal friends to not intertwine them into our world of work. This activity alone felt very different and was extremely valuable. I still use this document today.

Yet even this refreshing change of pace left more to be desired. Yes, the cohort was somewhat diverse, but there were a small number of women of color. You’d better believe we saw each other immediately when we walked into the room—we also took breaks and ate lunch together.

But there was a flipside to that solidarity. In those intimate gatherings of us women of color, the conversations were the unspoken things we could not say to the remaining members of the cohort, who were mostly White women. There was a consistent message that vulnerability was not only welcomed in our careers but that it was essential to being an effective leader. But vulnerability for women of color is often seen as a liability. Instead of being seen as compassionate leaders, we are viewed as emotional and angry.

What we know to be true as women of color is that our tears are seen as frustration, anger, and incompetence, versus the infamous “White women tears” that allow White women to deflect responsibility and to be seen as victims. Black women cannot show up as our whole selves at work. My whole self is direct; my friends often remind me to be mindful of my facial expressions because I tend to display exactly what I am thinking. My whole self takes action. My whole self takes risks. My whole self makes mistakes and celebrates wins and corrects and learns from losses.

As a Black woman, I do not feel safe being vulnerable in the workplace. My rationality is perceived as negative stoicism; my drive is perceived as being mean or uncaring.

Professional development—when administered with depth and understanding of these hurdles—is essential to career growth. When you devote time to step away from your work to learn and hone your skills, you become a better, more effective professional. While a best practice in one organization may not necessarily translate exactly to another, the process of research, analysis, discussion, critical thinking, and discussion is key to organizational and personal growth. 

What is clear to me is that a specific space has to be created in these workshops for women of color to connect and share, independent of White women. It is simply a fact that our experience is and will likely always be uniquely different from that of other races and genders.

Another key takeaway is that networking is key to your success. I met some amazing women of all races that I stay connected with on LinkedIn. I see and am inspired by the career moves that they are making. I even reached out to one of them for support after resigning from my most recent position in philanthropy. I am truly rooting for them and them for me. However, my lunch partners, my fellow women of color in the cohort, were honest and vulnerable. I appreciate the safe space that was created and the candor that was shared.  

My final takeaway is that women of color need professional development spaces designed specifically for us. We need to connect and be in community with women who look like us and who share the same workplace struggles. Our workplace experiences are different from those of White women, and we have to be ok with acknowledging that ourselves, being vocal, and unapologetically making others aware as well. Most importantly, we have to come together from a place of vulnerability, restoration, and healing so we can go back to our respective workplaces and keep doing the work that we do.

Read the full post here: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/women-of-color-deserve-quality-professional-development/