Success & Leadership

You Called Her a Rising Star In 2019. 

Now You Call Her "Difficult." She Did Not Change, Her Power Did.

Stop telling Black women to "just be yourself" or “be authentic” at work. That advice assumes being yourself costs everyone the same. It does not.

This is aimed at leaders over 55 who still sign off on promotions, succession plans and restructures. You hold more power to change this than anyone and you have less time left to use it.

The Disappearing Leadership Pipeline

What Got You Here Will Not Define What Comes Next in Your Career or Business?

You can be more experienced than you have ever been and still discover that the environment in which that skill must create value has changed.

That does not make what you know less valuable. Quite the opposite. Years spent building a career or business has given you judgement, relationships, cultural intelligence and the ability to recognise patterns that someone encountering the same situation for the first time simply cannot possess. The more important question is whether those assets are translating into the authority, competitive advantage and influence your ambitions now require.

That is becoming harder to leave to chance. Leadership expectations are shifting, AI is changing how quickly businesses can research, create and compete, while increasingly crowded platforms are making it harder for even credible ideas to command attention. For Black women and women of…

The More Successful You Become, the More Valuable Your “Yes” Becomes. 

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘥. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮?

There is an interesting paradox that arrives with professional success. The more established you become, the more invitations find you. What nobody tells you is that your success also makes your attention, reputation, relationships and credibility increasingly valuable to the people doing the inviting.

That changes how leaders should read the flattering email.

It may begin with somebody saying they have followed your work. They know about the award, article, promotion or organisation you have spent years building. Perhaps a prestigious publication, broadcaster or institution is mentioned. For a woman who has fought to have her expertise recognised, particularly a Black woman or woman from a culturally diverse background, this can feel less like flattery and more…

 You Were Right. The Room Moved On Without You.

If you are a high-performing woman already leading, building a business, navigating your next career chapter or rising into greater responsibility, SistaTalk 30: Claim the Room is designed to help you turn the expertise you already possess into greater influence, so your ideas are heard, your judgment carries weight and your contribution has a stronger chance of shaping the decision while it is still being made.

That matters because you may already recognise the moment when expertise and influence separate. You raise a concern in a meeting, explain the evidence and identify what could go wrong, but the conversation moves on. Twelve minutes later, somebody else raises essentially the same issue and suddenly the room stops to consider it.

Your assessment may be described as “thorough” while somebody else's is called “strategic” or you introduce the idea only to watch another…