LGBT and Leadership

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT)

and Leadership

We used to define humans’ sexuality as male and female; however, that perspective cannot be applied to the today society. In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States legalized same-sex marriage in 50 states (Wikipedia, n.d.). This movement provided rights and freedom to those people who are in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Even though the society seems to be more opened to LGBT people and give them the rights as human beings, unfortunately, Nithya Das, the author of the Woman and the LGBT Community Are Natural Allies stated that, “Today, both women and members of the LGBT community face many of the same glass ceilings in the workplace”. The glass ceiling was a term that once referred to female leadership. Many women have a barrier blocking their way to grow in higher leading positions in the organization. If we do easy math and assume that 50% of the individuals in the organization are men, that means the half of people who are women already face the glass ceiling. However, no one knows if those female and male employees in the organization are gay or bisexual. We also do not know an exact number of LGBT people in the organization. This easy math draws me to a question—Who in the workplace really do not have to experience the glass ceiling in the workplace? Its answer might be only a few people. This week, we will discuss about the LGBT and leadership in two perspectives which are about how LGBT people can lead out loud and how we can decree a gender gap to help LGBT leaders lead.

First of all, it is necessary to understand how LGBT leaders can become effective leaders by “leading out loud”. 

According to Katherine Conrad (2016), a writer of the Authenticity Can Help LGBTQ Leaders Be More Effective: Being open about who you are can help you succeed, she wrote that “more than half of all people who are gay do not disclose their sexual identity at work.” Conrad referred to a viewpoint of J.D Schramm, a lecturer of the LGBT Executive Leadership Program at the Stanford University, that being your true self as openly and honestly as possible while leading helps LGBT leaders to become strong leaders. A reason for this statement is that other people tend to like to question and talk about their leaders’ behaviors. This could negatively professionally affect leaders in terms of trustworthiness and promotion. For example, based on my experiences in the military, colleagues concluded that one male officer who appears to have feminine traits had a weak and unsteady leadership style in comparison to others. This judgment became an obstacle for him to be promoted since he was negatively judged because of his feminine traits. Schramm also offered a modal called Illustration by Tricia Siebold. It explains that, although LGBT leaders have various options to present themselves, such as being authentic or artificial, and transparent or private, the best way to strongly lead people is to lead out loud by implementing their own genuineness through an authentic leadership style. This includes the authentic leadership approach that followers need genuine, trustworthy and good leaders. Hence, being open and honest to one true self is a starting point for effective leaders. They will be able to focus on serving others later. Moreover, LGBT leaders can use their critical life events to help lead their followers, such as experiences of being accepted in the workplace, understanding their own role, and understanding others. Applying these personal experiences makes them become more authentic, and, most importantly, break the glass ceiling.

Secondly, we will discuss how to decrease the gender gap for LGBT leader.

Since people have different opinions toward LGBT people, and we cannot avoid working with the people who think differently and have a different lifestyle or a leadership style, the best way to cope with this issue is to create a good organizational culture that supports everybody to achieve their own goals and organization’s goals as a whole. Northouse (2016) suggested three sets of decreasing the gender gap as follows:

Human capital differences: Northouse (2016) wrote that, “Women have less human capital investment in education, training, and work experience than men” (p. 399). By viewing an LGBT case from this perspective, many workplaces do not want to invest their budget on LGBT people. For example, before 2018, Transgender people were not accepted and allowed to enlist in the U.S. military. (Stelloh, 2017). Luckily, there are less the human capital differences in the workplace because of the law of same-sex movement in 2015. 





Gender differences in leadership styles and effectiveness: Northouse (2016) stated that, “Women are just different from men” (p. 401). Based on women’s and men’s nature and their own experiences, these factors shape them to lead differently. The similar principles can be applied to LGBT leaders. Some LGBT leaders have to hide their identity due to various personal reasons. Thus, if they do not apply a leading style which aligns with their identity, it does not mean that they are bad leaders.





Prejudice: People tend to judge LGBT people in a negative way as Rose Saxe, an author of an article entitled “It’s Always Been about Discrimination for LGBT People”, stated that, “Many of us are taught that this difference is bad — shameful, deviant, disgusting”. This thought leads people in the organization to judge LGBT leaders that they are bad and cannot be trusted. In order to reduce the gender gap, everyone needs stop judging the book by its cover and give LGBT leaders an opportunity to be him/ herself while leading. 

The glass ceiling exists not only among women, but it has become an issue for LGBT people. This issue obviously prevents the organization from having good leaders because LGBT people have to hide their true self. As a result, they cannot get through the glass ceiling. In order to enhance more opportunities for good LGBT leaders to lead, they need to lead out loud by being authentic. Moreover, people need to help create an understanding and welcoming work environment by decreasing the gender gap. By doing so, it helps people understand more about human capital differences, gender differences in leadership styles and effectiveness, and prejudice. I hope that my article this week will encourage a little movement for LGBT people to gain more confidence to lead in their style. Last but not least, I hope it makes people realize that it is everybody’s responsibilities to create an equal opportunity and break the glass ceiling in the workplace.

References: 

Conrad, K. (2016). Authenticity Can Help LGBTQ Leaders Be More Effective. Retrieved from https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/authenticity-can-help-lgbtq-leaders-be-more-effective

Das, N. (2016). Women and LGBT Community Are Natural Allies. Retrieved fromhttps://www.entrepreneur.com/article/281472

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Same-sex Marriage in the United States. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States

Saxe, R. (2017). It’s Always Been About Discrimination for LGBT People. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/lgbt-nondiscrimination-protections/its-always-been-about-discrimination-lgbt-people

Stelloh, T. (2017). Transgender People can Enlist in Military on Jan. 1, Judge says. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/transgender-people-can-enlist-military-january-1-judge-says-n824381