I recently participated in and engaged with two vastly different environments: a retreat focused on fighting against racism and a corporate workshop on new ways of working and upcoming projects.
In the retreat, the work was collective, built on (self-)awareness and peer-to-peer respect.
In the workshop, however, I witnessed a “visibility gap.” A model I had designed during the session was being attributed to the loudest male voices in the room. I had to intervene: “I designed it. You are making the wrong assumptions.” My intervention was not just about credit; it was a necessary structural correction that is often needed in corporate contexts, where “agency-based stereotypes [still] contribute to discrimination against women in the workforce (…) suggesting that women are less likely than men to have their creative thinking recognized” (Proudfoot et al., 2015).
This was followed by the observation of a common linguistic habit: the use of “You’re right” to signal agreement. While seemingly positive, this reveals a structural flaw in how we communicate expertise. In fact, as discourse tries to (re)produce power relationships and (re)produce certain sorts of subjects (this has been thoroughly theorized and explained in the work of Michel Foucault; for a synthesis, cf. for instance, Miller, 1990). “You’re right” functions as a verdict rather than a collaboration. By telling a colleague they are “right,” you inadvertently step into the role of a judge. You position your own perspective as the standard against which their expertise must be validated.
The Strategic Risk: Stifling Expertise
For organizations seeking resilient frameworks, communication must remain horizontal. When leadership credits the loudest presenter or defaults to evaluative language, they create an implicit hierarchy that discourages independent thought and negatively impacts diversity across your teams.
If you are facing similar challenges, it may be helpful to consider agency and power in the organization through the lenses of L-A-P (leadership as a practice) theories, and to inspire your teams to engage “in critical dialogue wherein they would question the language and the practices that bear the imprint of social control” (Raelin, 2023).
The Path Forward: Tips for Shifting Your Communication
- Stop saying “You’re right”: It creates a judge and a subject.
- Start saying “I agree”: It acknowledges two peers in alignment.
- Use Linguistic Alignment: Swap judgments for observations like “That aligns with the data” or “I receive that point.”
- Stop attributing ideas to volume (and be mindful that volume often correlates with gender and culture).
- Start to actively seek and protect the thinkers inside your organization.
A ton of resources exist to help you explore the topic of effective communication more in depth. To get started, have a look at the short and insightful articles by Barnhill (2023) and Emerson (2021) and remember that, by shifting from being a judge and working to reduce your cognitive biases, you ensure that all team members remain visible and your organization can effectively identify, mobilize, and reward all available expertise to make progress towards its strategic goals.
References & Further Reading
Barnhill, A. (n.d.). Effective Communication: How Leaders Can Inspire, Engage And Succeed. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2023/07/21/effective-communication-how-leaders-can-inspire-engage-and-succeed/
Emerson, M.S. (2021, August 30). 8 Ways You Can Improve Your Communication Skills. Professional & Executive Development | Harvard DCE. https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/8-ways-you-can-improve-your-communication-skills/
Miller, S. (1990). Foucault on Discourse and Power. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, (76), 115–125.
Proudfoot, D., Kay, A. C., & Koval, C. Z. (2015). A Gender Bias in the Attribution of Creativity: Archival and Experimental Evidence for the Perceived Association Between Masculinity and Creative Thinking. Psychological Science, 26(11), 1751–1761. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615598739
Raelin, J. A. (2023). Leadership-as-Practice: Its Past History, Present Emergence, and Future Potential. Academy of Management Collections, 2(2), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.5465/amc.2021.0005
