Walking a "Tightrope" as WOC Leader
On Sunday afternoon, Frankie, my boyfriend, and I celebrated my 42nd birthday* over veggie curry and a macro bowl at Souen, my favorite hole-in-the-wall Japanese vegan restaurant in the East Village.
He's a former academic, so I asked him his thoughts about the recent news of Harvard president Claudine Gay being accused of plagiarism.
"What strikes me is how people don't talk about the peer-review process. The media says that Claudine Gay's dissertation was peer-reviewed, so how come no one talks about how the peers approved it?" he said.
I let out a deep sigh. I feel heartbreak and anger at the injustice.
"That's because the real issue behind the news is more than plagiarism," I said.
It's a blatant example of when office politics meets race politics at the highest levels of higher ed.
For many WOCs, this feels achingly familiar.
People are quick to criticize, scrutinize, and take down a WOC leader without addressing the context in which you're set up to fail...as if they were waiting for you to slip up and fall from grace.
A client described her experience with leadership as "walking a very narrow tightrope."
Many talk about systemic biases and the need for collective action to address them.
Collective action needs to be taken. But I'm also a realist, who knows firsthand what it's like to be singled out as the only WOC at the leadership table, and justifiably hyper-vigilant in an environment far from ideal.
Waiting for collective action, or for the system to change, is like counting snail steps, each step an eternity.
You, on the other hand, want to empower yourself with sturdy self-confidence and tools to help yourself walk with your head held high...past the critics, through the ups and downs of 2024, and across the finish line to your goals.
When you do, you'll be better equipped to help change the system.
This is why, in coaching, I focus on two things:
Helping women like you who hate office politics. Too often, office politics serve as a thinly veiled apparatus for systemic, racial, and gender biases.
Equipping clients with brain-based tools so you can help yourself to a more resourceful brain state. So even if the system is messed up, you can strengthen yourself from the inside out with calm self-assurance.
To hear this in action, listen to an actual coaching segment in the latest episode of my podcast:
PS -* If you'd like to wish me a belated happy birthday, here's what I'd super-duper appreciate: you forwarding this blog post to the women in your network who can benefit from this coaching.
If you want to learn more about my coaching philosophy and process and book your free consult, click here (www.jamieleecoach.com/apply)
