Can leaning out scale?
31 Jan 2022I wrote about leaning out here. I’ve been wondering if the concept can scale or what scaling leaning out looks like.
What is ‘leaning out’
“Leaning out” is a concept I first stumbled on in an op-ed ages ago but I use the term differently.
For me, if “leaning in”, a concept made famous by Cheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, asks a marginalised group to be more <insert attribute>, then leaning out asks a mainstreamed group to effectively do the opposite: be less <insert attribute>.
On an individual level, leaning out could look like refusing a speaking engagement and instead recommending an equally great expert from a marginalised community.
Why does leaning out matter?
To me, it matters because often the responsibility for increasing representation, diversity, or inclusion is put on folks historically and currently marginalised by the mainstream (the op-ed does a pretty good job of explaining this conundrum from a traditional (cis)-gendered stereotype perspective).
That responsibility has never sat well with me –– I prefer a collaborative approach between margin and centre.
However, I’m conscious an in vs out paradigm sets up a potentially false dichotomy which a) struggles to account for intersectionality, and b) doesn’t address the nuances of power and status in a team/organisation/society/culture. It also implies a scarcity model of opportunity which I feel ambivalent about.
I continue to work on how to conceptualise these complexities but still believe it’s worthwhile thought-experimenting in this paradigm.
Leaning out in a team
In this thought experiment what does leaning out look like on a team?
One idea I’ve played with is rotating the tech leadership role in a team. Each person on the team becomes the tech lead for a particular period and then the role switches to someone else.
This probably would work best on a team where everyone is curious to try leading, feels comfortable in the role, and has confidence in their skills. Obviously they’d be supported by their team to avoid being thrown in the deep end.
I can see some immediate downsides however: people may not want to lead and shouldn’t be forced to, changing leadership style could be chaotic, rotating technical approach could lead to inconsistent solutions, and it might be difficult when one person is viewed as the “lead” (perhaps because they’re more experienced) despite not being the official lead.
An alternative variation on the idea of leadership rotation is to ensure leaders periodically step back from leadership roles or opportunities for a short period of time (e.g., a month or quarter) but remain as a second-in-command or “shadow” leader.
How would this play out?
A keen bean team member shadows the current lead, then the lead steps back to a supportive, shadow role for a period of time. This allows the temporary lead to gain insight into the leadership or decision-making process and grow their leadership skill set. The original tech lead would return to their role once the set period is completed.
I’ve used this latter model on different teams and have found it personally useful to grow as a leader as well as providing leadership (i.e., promotable) experience and opportunities for colleagues who wouldn’t be able to get this experience any other way.
I think it’s especially important to explore this idea if there’s a pattern of more mainstream or overrepresented folks in leadership roles and not a lot of turn over.
Leaning out in an organisation
I struggle a bit to thought experiment at this scale.
Some leaning out techniques explored at the team level could be applied within an organisation, especially around periodic stepping back, shadowing combined with reverse shadowing.
Another example would be for organisational leaders to step back from opportunities and encourage someone else to take the task or perhaps collaborate on a task (e.g., external speaking engagements).
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to shadow a CTO and be CTO for a day/week.
Leaning out as a professional
I wrestle with this thought experiment a lot and have tried implementing some type of leaning out.
For me, leaning out as a professional could mean stepping back from the professional space all together, making myself quieter and less obtrusive, and where I can amplify/support other folks.
I sometimes wonder how different my time in tech would’ve been if the overrepresented folks I’ve worked with had stepped back, asked me to collaborate with them on ideas, or had offered me the opportunities initially presented to them.
I have no idea, perhaps it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
However, now when I’m approached with opportunities (speaking, blogging, open source) I try to ask myself if I really need it, or better yet, is there someone else in my network who would benefit from the opportunity.
It’s helpful to develop a list of cool people in your network to recommend for roles and/or opportunities. Check with them first though, not everyone is interested in this sort of thing.
I’ve also found it useful to point recruiters to a list of communities, groups, or job boards for marginalised groups.
Conclusion
At the end of the day I have no idea if what I do matters, whether I’m overthinking the whole thing, or if this in vs. out paradigm is even useful.
What grounds me or what encourages me to continue (perhaps awkwardly), is how frustrating it felt when I started out to find leadership experience or speaking opportunities.
I’d like the next generation of career changers to have a different experience.