This highly interactive webinar covers the phenomenon of "silencing" in the executive suite — highlighting key original research findings; Dr. Carrie Arnold will review strategies successful people have used to recover and lead with voice currency. The silenced leader is a paradox as leadership implies a sense of voice and efficacy yet this can hardly be done if a leader feels silenced. Dr. Arnold’s research suggests there are many sitting in executive and senior-leader roles feeling and experiencing this exact phenomenon.
Her research with women shows they are silenced by systems that favor a dominant male discourse, or they may experience systems that prefer a majority style or opinion they do not resemble or share. As a default, their voice may be silenced by ingroup normative behaviors. There are also relationships that silence. Peers and direct reports who hold power in an organization can be silencers, not to mention those in leadership who yield authority over others. It is also a myth to assume that women are always silenced by men. Research suggests that women silence other women in equal, and at times, more painful ways. Women often feel they have to adopt the male-dominant style of leadership and communication to be successful. When they do so, they can become silencers of their own gender in unconscious ways.