Is it time to consider having a coach of colour?

So often people in executive roles, or those on track for executive roles in an organization, receive coaching that lacks nuance or doesn't acknowledge the wisdom gained from  lived experience. Whether it be an experience of working and living from collective cultures, a different understanding of power, or a commitment to leadership that is more relational in its approach. 

This can be especially true for people of colour. So often, people of colour receive advice from executive coaches that does little more than encourage them to assimilate to a generic norm of executive culture. This can lead to a kind of erasure of lived experience that means that one has to flatten themselves to meet a one-note culture that often dominates executive teams.

Certainly one has to respect constraints and sometimes gifts of culture. And it is important to recognise that cultures create a lens that limits how progress and growth is understood. Some amount of matching the culture is needed to be effective.  And there are also gifts that come from diverse experience. The rigidity of many workplace and organisational cultures leads little room for exploration of those gifts. Though it is not done out of malice, the impact is a kind of sameness that weakens the prospect of innovation and connection that can happen when the gifts of diversity are valued and given room to shape the larger organization? 

And so the question is, if you are a person of colour or come from a marginalised population, is it time to consider selecting an executive coach that welcomes and helps you to nurture the gifts that come from difference?

What you can gain

As a person who hosts and participates in networks with groups specific to some of the identities, such as a group for people of colour working with nonviolent principles, I have both experienced and heard anecdotal stories about how being in groups in which you share identities, perspectives, and histories. 

One of the most beautiful benefits is not having to explain the implicit. For example, if you are dealing with issues of microaggressions, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to find the words that describe to someone who has not experienced being the target of such comments. Being with someone or group that shares that identity and has had similar experiences means that you don’t have to find the words. In hearing your experience it is received by the group without your having to interpret. This kind of resonance is settling and supports you to know that you have been heard. 

Being coached by a person of colour can also widen the scope of exploration of what is possible for innovation and problem solving. Groups, organisations, and industries often have limits that are imposed by external forces or are generated by cultures that have germinated over their lifetimes, constrained by the status quo. In a Western context, the larger culture is shaped by those in the dominant group. People who come from marginalised populations, while they share similarities with the larger culture and even workplace and group cultures, are also shaped by differences in the cultures that they have grown up in or have been exposed to. 

Of course having a person of colour as a coach is not only beneficial to those who come from  marginalised backgrounds. The opportunity to expand perspectives while exploring challenges in life and work can also benefit those who are immersed in the dominant culture and are seeking creative and innovative approaches to address those challenges.  Consider experimenting by working with a coach that works beyond the usual mix.

See my "Ask Leonie" video: As a person of color, are there any advantages to having a person of color as my executive coach?