Leading Below the Surface

Othered leaders rely on self-authorship to make sense of their experiences in a world not defined or represented by them. In the scarce literature out there, self-authorship is described as a norm for Black women. It’s our reaction to having a lack of KPEs that represent us in leadership science and organizational practices. We have to pave our own

Connecting with those who are not like us takes a little extra work, and our brains may not reward us as quickly or easily as they do when we are interacting with people who are similar to us.

Enter the conversation with intention. If you are having a tough time staying in below the surface communication, try to get settled in your intentions before your conversation starts. You can do this by taking 10 deep breaths. You will slow yourself down immediately. Also, write down any outdated conversational habits you want to discontinue. Sett

Being surface is normalized, and there are few consequences, if any, to being a surface leader. People want to get better but, as with anti-racism movements in companies, people performatively commit but have a hard time truly changing.

The third consideration to make is to accept below the surface leadership as a legitimate leadership archetype.

Meandering in the muck is probably the most underrated and under-actioned behavior in the entire below the surface approach. Meandering in the muck is exactly what it sounds like. It’s getting comfortable with camping out in the deepest and most uncomfortable sludge that diversity brings into the workplace. It takes a lot of vulnerability and coura

Overnight, due to an uncontrollable family tragedy, I became too much of a burden for Shayna.

They are throwing surface solutions at a below the surface problem. There is no such thing as a great culture. Great culture for whom? Great culture for what? Calling something a “great culture” doesn’t mean anything. Before you can even describe your culture, you first must ask yourself if it’s surface or not. If your culture is surface, then you

confirms our own beliefs or values.