Why do people on LinkedIn have she her?

This week is Inclusion Week in Jacobs, where the aim is to provide employees with easy, practical and intentional actions that they can use to make inclusion part of our everyday culture. It is also an opportunity for every employee to demonstrate their personal commitment to fostering an inclusive Jacobs workplace. I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain the reasoning behind lengthening my professional profile name.

You'll see I have consciously included (she-her) after my LinkedIn profile name. I also have (she/her) after my email signature. You may have thought or be thinking, why?

Well put simply, adding your pronouns (she, her, he, him, they, them, etc.) to your email signature or profile name is an easy, practical and intentional action that you can take to make inclusion part of your everyday culture.

But how does this work?! Imagine a working environment where you couldn't truly be yourself. Imagine having to hide certain personal elements of yourself who truly define you. Imagine the negative impact that has on an employee's mental health and happiness. Imagine the kickbacks associated on productivity, engagement, and in the end, retention.

Adding your pronouns is one discrete, simple and yet powerful way to help make non-binary, transgender and intersex people feel more welcomed and included in any environment. It’s relatively easy to add pronouns for the cis gendered – that is those who identity as the gender assigned to them at birth – and in visibly highlighting pronouns, it normalises the process for others, whilst also spreading awareness and understanding. Non-binary individuals do not identify as male or female and transgender people undergoing a transition, may often be misgendered. These LGBT+ people will find comfort in visbly noticing that the person they are communicating with understands some of the issues that the LGBT+ community have to navigate.

Simply put, I believe that adding your pronouns is one tiny thing we can all do now to help create a more inclusive, sustainable culture - which will naturally assist in empowering everyone to bring their whole self to work.

Still a little baffled with the LGBT+ terminology? That's ok, a lot of it is relatively new to me too. Check out Stonewall's Glossary of Terms. You may also like All Your Questions About Gender-Neutral Pronouns Answered.

If you realise you've accidentally made a mistake with misgendering, don't worry, mistakes can happen. What is important is that we learn from them. No need to profusely apologise (sometimes that actually draws more unwanted attention to the situation), just politely acknowledge a mistake was made and move on.

Just to clarify, the topic of pronouns is not new for 2019. There are LOADS of articles out there speaking about their power. I would definitely recommend this one - Why I Put Pronouns on my Email Signature (and Linkedin profile) and You Should Too.

Let me make something crystal clear, adding your pronouns is entirely voluntary. You won't be seen in a different light for not jumping on this bandwagon. Likewise, adding your pronouns won't give you a step up on the career ladder. It is up to you whether you consider it worthwhile or beneficial.

I wanted to finish with a heartwarming story about a friend. I've recently become President of Glasgow Frontrunners, the UK's second largest LGBT+ running club. I am incredibly proud of our hundreds of members (indeed, also those who are part of the Frontrunner umbrella across the globe), all of which have their own personal story to tell. Whether it is battling with a mental illness, understanding their own gender identity or sexuality, or just wanting to be part of the LGBT+ support network. You don't need to identify as LGBT+ or queer to be a member, we welcome people from all walks of life, and create a friendly environment where anyone can pull on their running shoes and hit the road.

Here is the wonderful story, and they are most happy for this to be shared.

When I first started seeing pronouns, e.g., he/him, she/her, they/them, on my colleagues' social media and email signatures, it felt like a virtue-signalling, post-modern fashion statement. There is part of me that doesn't think we should rewrite the rules of language every time someone has a new idea. Then I talked with a guy I really respect, Craig Forman, an MKP brother who also works at CultureAmp, about his decision to do it. Craig and I were on a video call and he just asked me straight up, "Have you added your gender pronouns to your LinkedIn profile yet?"

I immediately felt a jolt, like "oh yeah, I need to do that" AND "I have big resistance to doing that". My inner image consultant is a very Midwestern, pragmatist, rub-dirt-on-it kind of guy. He doesn't like being fashionable or "woke" at all. Even though I know deep down that making the world more open, safe and accepting is purpose-aligned, adding gender pronouns is a little much for my image consultant.

Adding my pronouns also makes my inner risk manager cringe as well. It may cost me economically, meaning for me as a CIS-gendered, straight white male entrepreneur who relies on the likeability and trust of many other CIS-gendered, straight white males, it might make doing business harder for me.

But as Craig and I talked, I began to share his view that it also makes the world a little safer for folks as they explore and claim the contours of their identity and sexuality. I'm not talking about melting snowflakes. I'm talking about life and death. There is an increased suicide risk for folks who don't identify as purely straight, male or female. According to a 2018 University of Arizona study,

"...50.8 percent of transmasculine adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19 have attempted suicide at least once, while 41.8 percent of nonbinary adolescents - those who don't identify as exclusively male or exclusively female - have attempted suicide. The next most at-risk adolescent groups were transfeminine - those who were born male but identify as female - at 29.9 percent, and those questioning their gender identity, at 27.9 percent."

If we can make the world a little safer, a little less hostile and unforgiving, all the better. If someone feels allyship from enough folks, it might have them reach out in times of crisis. Should we lose a little cred with folks who don't feel this way or they choose not to work with us as result, I believe that's only temporary. I agree with Martin Luther King Jr.'s sentiment, that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice", so why shouldn't we add a little weight to it?

We've got privilege to spare and a long game to play. All fights for justice are the same fight. As MLK Jr. beautifully said,

“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be... This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

About the Author

Brandon Peele (he/him) is a Midwesterner, best-selling author, international speaker and serial impact entrepreneur.

He is the Founder of ELEVATE, a a company that creates a flourishing future for the United States of America, by activating purposeful organizations and cultures of trust, innovation and collaboration.

Over the last two decades, he has written / co-written 4 books on purpose activation. He has driven growth for several Fortune 500 and start-ups companies, and has guided thousands of people on their journey to discover and live their higher purpose.

He works with moms, dads, veterans, clergy, students and retirees, as well as world-class athletes, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs and leaders from organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Stanford University, The United States Marine Corps, Google, The Smithsonian Institutes and Apple.

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