Executive Coaching for Leaders of Color
Charles Moore | Executive Coach
I don’t need to tell you that navigating corporate life as a leader of color can be difficult.
As you can tell from my picture, I am a Black executive coach. I also spend a lot of time as a coach for Black executives in my direct practice and through supporting McKinsey’s Black Executive Leadership Program. Before all this, I was a leader of color trying to drive results and get ahead in a corporate environment.
The point is: I get it.
While the fundamentals of coaching a leader of color are the same for anyone in a leadership role, there are some additional focus areas:
Analyzing both “out there” and “in here.”
Unfortunately, leaders of color are more likely to experience bias in their organizations. But the existence of bias can also skew a person’s lens to their experiences. Was the other person really more qualified, or is this because of my race? Am I not getting sponsorship because of the organization, or something I’m doing wrong?
For us to do this work well, we’ll have to develop a nuanced analysis of both what’s happening in the organization and what’s happening based on your behaviors. When we bring insight to both, the plan you’ll craft will be more robust.
Understanding your stories.
All of us, regardless of background, bring our unique experiences and stories to work with us. But because leaders of color come from communities that have not always been welcome in corporate America, we often have stories about what it means to work in these environments.
Some of these stories help us succeed; some of them can be limiting. And it’s our job to make sure we acknowledge and understand them as the basis for creating a path forward for you.
Defining authentic success.
Many leaders of color define success beyond just getting ahead and beyond just themselves. Understanding what matters to you is an important foundation of our coaching relationship. It sets the stage for how you’ll prioritize goals and your development.
In the context of a coaching relationship, regardless of the coach’s identity and the client’s identity, this should be central to supporting the client’s path.
If I can be helpful to you, please reach out.
Below, you’ll also find several resources to help you on the journey.
The Unique Experiences of Leaders of Color
My research and coaching experience suggests several dynamics that Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and other leaders of color are more likely to experience.
First-generation professionals.
Because of historical inequities, many leaders of color did not grow up with parents who had managerial careers in corporate environments. As one of my colleagues points out, “Most of us have jobs our parents didn’t even know existed.” As such, many leaders of color are learning how to navigate corporate environments as they go.
Interestingly, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling describes a similar dynamic among Asian leaders who are first-generation or recent immigrants.
Internalized limiting messages.
Being “first generation” may also affect one’s career choices. Those climbing the bottom rungs of the economic ladder may have been told to focus on careers that are safe—something “they can’t take away from you.” Because of this, some leaders of color I’ve worked with haven’t actually thought about what they authentically want to do professionally, or they know what they want, but are risk averse. Our coaching conversations often focus on understanding and addressing those mindsets.
Another example is this line that the majority of Black professionals I’ve worked with grew up hearing: “You have to work twice as hard to get half as far.” For those who adopt the “work twice as hard” part of that message, it may be helpful to their professional success.
But messages like this might also lead someone to push forward with the belief that effort alone is what drives professional success, which can be a limiting belief as they rise, and relationships are more significant. They may also have to unlearn this instinct to achieve better balance, as this article in The Washington Post illustrates.
And those professionals who internalize “half as far” may set their sights too low.
A bad mix of positive and negative messages.
Leaders of color, on average, are more likely to experience negative messages about their place in the organization—e.g., questions about their competence or undermining behaviors. This is also true of women.
At the same time, leaders of color are less likely to have sponsors, which means that these leaders also have fewer positive messages to counteract the negative. This can affect what leaders of color believe is possible for their achievement in the organization.
Of course, all that is on top of bias that leaders of color are more likely to experience in organizations. Because of these dynamics, relative to their white peers, leaders of color need to remix common success strategies and add some novel ones to get ahead.
RESOURCES
Downloadable Collections
RESOURCES
Blog Posts on Identity and Leadership
RESOURCES
Must-Read Leadership Books for Leaders of Color
This list is a combination of great books by leaders of color and books that touch on critical aspects of the journey—finding your unique path, building relationships, and navigating organizational culture.
Click on the title to find a synthesis of the key concepts and interesting quotes. Clients may request the full notes for any book.
Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling
“Keep in mind that professional upward mobility requires action on your part. It’s unrealistic to expect that your managers and colleagues will automatically want and know how to unearth the true you and understand all you are capable of offering.”
Breaking Through
“Confidence, or self-confidence, may be the most important of the required personal resources, yet is perhaps the most intangible.”
Connect
“This book is about a special type of relationship we call exceptional.”
Designing Your Life
“A well-designed life is a life that is generative—it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise.”
Expect to Win
“Instead of blaming “they,” which is a passive approach, ask, “What did I do to contribute to the situation?” To focus on “they” and what “they” did makes you the victim. When you live as a victim, you give away your power. To live in your power, you have to understand that you are participating in the situation in some way for it to happen in the first place.”
Lead from the Outside
“There’s a colloquialism I’ve embraced: let your haters be your motivators. If we attempt to be more than prescribed by our demographics, we will face opposition, not just the nasty trolls of the Internet, who nitpick at superficial differences or double-down on rhetoric to undermine confidence.”
The Likeability Trap
“For us, the success penalty isn’t merely a professional impediment; it’s a mindfuck.”
Presence
“When you are not present, people can tell. When you are, people respond.”
A Promised Land
“Getting things done meant subjecting yourself to criticism, and the alternative—playing it safe, avoiding controversy, following the polls—was not only a recipe for mediocrity but a betrayal of the hopes of those citizens who’d put you in office.”
The Purpose Path
“Will you still do something with your life that’s worthy of applause, even if no applause is given?”
Unapologetically Ambitious
“There are no two ways about it: Vulnerability is an unavoidable side effect of ambition.”
What Works for Women at Work
“I am allowed to be passionate, even to demonstrate some level of anger, but it better not be personal. It better not be about me. If I become angry about anything personal, then that is perceived as being an angry black woman.”
Let’s connect.
Let’s explore the many ways in which a tailored coaching engagement can help you!
Coaching Services
Executive Coaching for Strategic Leadership
Focused leadership skill development.
Thrive Street helps leaders build the skills and mindsets needed to be more effective strategic leaders. This 6-month coaching engagement is for leaders with a specific performance or skill development challenge to tackle.
It includes a 360° assessment and debrief using the Leadership Circle Profile (or another feedback instrument, as appropriate), goal alignment meetings with your manager, and two post-engagement follow-up coaching sessions.
Executive Balance
Develop a plan to achieve a sustainable work-life balance while delivering in your role.
When you have the right energy, you can achieve the best results. We’ll work together to rapidly rebalance your commitments and priorities so that you can do so.
Our Work:
Project Inventory and Assessment
Implement time management routines
Identify commitments to renegotiate
Weekly accountability
Coaching meetings to tune your plan
New Role Launch
Get off on the right foot and feel confident in your new role faster.
This coaching is to help you successfully launch into your new role. We’ll first do a deep dive to develop a success plan and then support you with accountability, feedback, and coaching over three to six months.
Our Work:
Develop a learning and relationship development plan
Develop a Strategic Playbook for Success
Weekly planning and accountability
Coaching meetings to tune your plan
On-Demand Coaching
Get the support you need when you need it.
These sessions can help you where the stakes are high and you want to get it right. The goal is to help you rapidly gain clarity and confidence. For example, clients use these coaching sessions to:
Plan for board meetings
Prepare for difficult conversations
Practice delivering performance reviews
Debrief performance feedback