Do You Have the Courage to Share Your Opinions at Work?
Courage is the fuel for anything to shine. Let's talk about the courage to speak and share your opinions at work and reflect on the impact of the cancel culture which is everywhere, even at work!
As I was sending my ‘Happy International Women’s Day’ celebration messages to the most important women in my life, one of my friends, Valerie, replied “Thank you for your message but women should be celebrated every day, not just for one day. Especially nowadays!”. OK…
My friend is a typical French lady, who loves to complain, loves her croissants, and only drinks and eats French wine and French cheese. During our conversation, she repeated several times that women's spaces were less protected and she felt that she needed to talk about it after seeing the chocolate company Hershey’s ad campaign.
The campaign faces major backlash and boycotting for featuring a transgender woman,Fae Johnstone the Executive Director and Co-Owner of Wisdom2Action,the Daily Wire, and in response, an American conservative news website founded by Jeremy Boreing and Ben Shapiro has launched the campaign “I hate Hershey”.
In a previous article, I tackled the debate around the definition of what a woman is, which seems to divide the neo-progressists, who may adopt a subjectivism approach that regards anyone who identifies as a woman as a woman, from others who consider biology as fact.
Unfortunately, nowadays very banal topics can sometimes lead to arguments, or at worst, being cancelled on social media and by your friends… Ouch! A few examples would be; “You don’t support BLM - Are you racist?”. “You don't agree with the idea that all white straight men are the cause of all our problems in this society - Are you a bigot?”. “Women and transgender women are the - Are you transphobic?”.
And the list goes on.
Since the pandemic, the lines between our professional and personal lives have become blurrier and now that companies encourage and support their employees in being themselves, making things even more intertwined. While this is a fantastic opportunity to enable people to be at ease with some parts of their identity and overcome some limiting beliefs they might have that may prevent them from shining, does it also mean that employees can share their personal views on any topic?
We all know that professional relationships are very tricky. On one hand, you want to get along with everyone and build authentic relationships, on the other, you might also want to keep things… professional or separate.
As much as we appreciate our colleagues, they can at times get on our nerves. We all have had a colleague who loves to share very long and over-detailed emails when you just want a straight answer, right? What about your boss who books a meeting to clarify everything while you are in the middle of something? Or, what about that teammate who always needs to show off they know more than you? Each employee will have their preferred ways of working and as much as I like to think mine is the best, I’m sure I have driven many people insane.
In his book the 5 love languages, Gary Chapman explained brilliantly how people express and want to receive love. Some will prefer quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Let’s be clear, however, that the last one is not appropriate at work! Nonetheless, the more aware you are of each other’s “love language”, the higher your chances are of having better work relationships.
I have asked our experts in client relationships, our CP team, what is a good work /client relationship?
“A sign of a really strong [work] relationship is one where you can respectfully challenge and push each other… Where we have that mutual trust and a true partnership where we are comfortable doing the uncomfortable together.”
I love this definition because it includes healthy core values such as respect, transparency and trust which can only be present when we feel free and safe to share what is important to us. In a digital age where ideas are spreading faster than viruses, everyone has to learn to deal with and listen to different points of view without feeling offended. It is the only way we can have mature and constructive conversations.
Now although I have never been scared to be disliked for my views, I am wondering if I would have had the same courage to discuss why featuring a born male individual on an international woman day campaign might be an issue for some people if I was a white straight man.