Leading Her Introvert Way: Conversations about executive leadership, career growth, business and mindset for mid-life Black women.

76: Codeswitching Is Keeping You Locked Out Of The Executive Suite- Here's Your Key

• Nicole Bryan • Episode 76

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In this  episode of Leading Her Introvert Way, Dr. Nicole Bryan emphasizes the importance of authenticity for black introverted women in executive leadership. She discusses the challenges of code switching and presents a framework for developing your authentic executive voice, highlighting the benefits of embracing one's true self in professional settings. The episode concludes with practical steps for listeners to begin their journey towards authenticity and effective leadership.


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Speaker 1:

Hi, lady Leader, and welcome to Leading Her Introvert Way, the podcast for Black introverted women ready to excel as leaders both at home and at work. I'm Dr Nicole Bryan, and this episode is a special one. If you are a returning listener, you already know about the journey that we've been on together. If you are new to the podcast, then you may not already be aware that we've gone through some changes here since we started. It's been well over a year, and I remember when I first started the podcast, I was only recording once every two weeks and that was a stretch for me, honestly, but you loved it so much that I moved from recording once every two weeks to once a week, and the emphasis of the podcast has shifted as well. We went from supporting women to supporting introverted women and now we are focused on supporting introverted Black women. And through all of the evolution you have stuck with me and I just want to say thank you. It has been a true pleasure.

Speaker 1:

The podcast was something that I thought of for years actually over 10 years before I actually did anything about it, and so there was just a lot of issues with thinking about. Do I have the time, do I have enough to say what topics. All of that stuff All of the normal kind of hesitancy before doing something new and different, and I talked myself in and out of it for a while. But once I got into the groove, I got such positive feedback from you and it has been, and has become, truly my favorite thing to do in my business. So I do want to thank you for being here.

Speaker 1:

If you know anything about podcasts, most don't make it past episode eight or 10. So we are already way ahead of the game and you might be listening from anywhere in the world because we have coverage Meaning when I look at the stats of where people are listening, from the cities, the countries, we are all over the globe. So I would say and I'm looking at the stats right now we're definitely covering all the major cities in North America, for sure. We have people and listeners in Africa, oceania, asia, europe. It just does my heart so, so good. So shout out to my listeners in Germany, morocco, ukraine, sweden, the Russian Federation, australia, canada. Man, just seeing that, just seeing the reach, just knowing that you're listening and you're finding value from all of the topics that we're covering, it really, really does my heart good and, of course, I cannot overlook these listeners from Atlanta, from California, washington DC, birmingham, alabama, st Louis, missouri, philadelphia, sacramento, ontario, california, san Jose, broken Arrow, oklahoma See All over, all over, and I love it. So, once again, thank you for being here and congratulations to all of us on this episode.

Speaker 1:

So, with that said, let's jump in. So today we are covering a topic that I've mentioned many times on the podcast, but I don't think I've ever done a deep dive on this topic, and it's about being your authentic self as an executive. In fact, authenticity is your secret weapon as an executive, so let's talk about that today. And the truth is that, as black, introverted women, we have to deal with the exhausting reality that we may be code switching, and we also have to deal with the revolutionary idea that being more yourself might actually be your fastest path to executive leadership. Now, that might sound like crazy talk, but it's not. Now that might sound like crazy talk, but it's not.

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The one thing that you want to do as an executive leader is that you want to stand out and be known for something unique, and you are already unique. No one has your background, your experiences, no one thinks the way you do, so you are already unique in that sense, but for some reason, many of us don't leverage that uniqueness. In fact, we think about the opposite. We believe that we have to change who we are to look like, think like, be like people around us. And when that happens sometimes it happens consciously, sometimes it happens subconsciously, but when it happens, we dilute our differences and we minimize the impact that we could possibly have as an executive leader.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you've ever lowered your voice in a meeting or changed your language or even monitored your hair choices, so maybe you wanted to go natural with your hair, but you decided to keep it permed because you felt like that would be more appropriate for the office. Or maybe you wanted to wear braids but you decided not to because all of your leadership team are white women and white men who would only ask you questions about your braids that you don't feel like being bothered with. If you've done any of these things, then you might have even hidden aspects of your personality to be seen as professional or executive. But what that looks like is that maybe you went to I'm going to make this up a Jodeci concert over the weekend and when you get back to work on Monday, people are like hey, what'd you do over the weekend? And you don't want to necessarily say that you went to a Jodeci concert, because they don't know who the hell Jodeci is. Or it could be something like you went to your sorority chapter meeting over the weekend and an event sponsored by your sorority and you don't want to necessarily talk about that. Or you don't want your colleagues per se to see that on your social media page, because then that's just going to come up with a lot of questions and they're going to talk about their sorority days, which you and I know are completely different than what you may have experienced as part of your sorority. All of these things are ways in which you might be numbing who you are on the road to becoming the executive leader or the senior leader that you want to be, so today's conversation is going to feel like a breath of fresh air Now.

Speaker 1:

I remember being in a leadership meeting when I worked at T Rowe Price. It was very early in my tenure there and I caught myself mid-sentence. I was literally making a comment. It wasn't my meeting, I wasn't leading it, I was just a participant. I was mid-sentence and I realized that I'd completely changed my natural speech pattern, my body language and even the examples that I was using all to seem more leadership-like, that I was using all to seem more leadership-like. I left that meeting feeling not just exhausted but almost hollow, like I was wondering if I have to become someone else to be respected in this space and to reach my leadership career goals. Is it even worth it? Leadership career goals is it even worth it? And that might be the question that you are asking yourself, because I know you felt this same drain, this same question.

Speaker 1:

So today I want to challenge the fundamental assumption that's behind all that code switching the idea that your authentic self isn't executive material. What if the exact opposite is true? What if your authenticity is actually a strategic advantage for executive leadership and not a liability that you have to overcome? Let's talk about exactly how that works. First, let's acknowledge the very, very real pressure to code switch that we face as Black women in corporate spaces. The research on this is eye-opening.

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A Stanford University study found that Black professionals report spending about 41% of their day on what researchers call impression management Consciously monitoring and adjusting their appearance, communication style and behavior to align with what they're seeing in their workplace. Now think about that. That's nearly half of our entire day that's spent performing rather than just being and contributing. For those of us who are introverts, this creates a double burden. We're already expending energy adapting to extroverted workplace environments and then we're adding this whole other layer of cultural and racial adaptation on top of that.

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One of my clients she actually described it perfectly. She said I feel like I'm running two full time jobs doing my actual work and then managing how. Everyone perceives me doing that work. The psychological cost is huge. Perceives me doing that work. The psychological cost is huge.

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A University of Michigan study found that extensive code switching correlates with increased emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of belonging and higher burnout rates. And here's what really hit me Black women who reported high levels of code switching were two and a half times more likely to say they wouldn't pursue executive roles because the energy costs seemed too high. So many brilliant women are opting out of executive leadership, not because they lack the capability, not because they don't want it, but because the perceived energy tax of constant code switching makes it seem unsustainable. This really hit home with my client, tanya. She was a senior director with exceptional strategic capabilities, but she told me I don't think I want to be a VP because I don't think I can keep up this performance forever. I'm already exhausted.

Speaker 1:

The assumed requirement of more code switching at higher levels was literally capping her ambition. But what if this fundamental assumption is completely wrong? What if authentic leadership is not just more sustainable, but actually more effective? Okay, let's look at what the research actually tells us about authenticity and leadership effectiveness. A groundbreaking Harvard Business Review study of over 200 global leaders found that authenticity was one of the strongest predictors of leadership effectiveness. Leaders who were perceived as authentic generated three times more employee engagement and four times higher retention of top talent. This isn't just about feeling good. This is about tangible business outcomes. Another fascinating study from Columbia tracked the career progress of emerging leaders over a five-year period. Those who were rated high on authenticity were 1.6 times more likely to be promoted to executive roles than those who were perceived as highly skilled at adaptation.

Speaker 1:

Now I want you to let that sink in for a moment, because the research suggests that the very thing many of us think we need to do to get ahead and to advance in careers and get into the executive suite, which is adapt ourselves to match the dominant norms that we find around us might actually be slowing down your advancement. Why? Because it all comes down to what psychologists, including myself, call cognitive trustworthiness the perception that someone's internal thinking and external presentation are aligned. When people sense a misalignment between the two meaning what you're showing to the outside world, what you're thinking on the inside world which happens during code switching their trust decreases, even if they can't articulate why. For you, as a Black woman navigating leadership roles, this presents a powerful opportunity. While code switching may seem necessary for acceptance in the short term, authentic leadership actually builds deeper influence and trust in the long term, and that's what you want to go after.

Speaker 1:

I want to be clear about something, though this doesn't mean that you get to ignore the organizational context or that you get to be unprofessional. That's not okay. That's not what I'm talking about, that's not what I'm suggesting, but it means that finding the strategic intersection between who you really are authentically and the professional context that you find yourself in is needed right, and you could refer to that as your authentic executive voice. There is a way to be you and to navigate your organization successfully at the same time, simultaneously, without having to give up one for the other. Okay, so how do you develop your authentic executive voice. As a Black, introverted woman. This is the framework that I've developed with my clients that creates both personal liberation and strategic advancement. The framework has three core components and, don't worry, I'm keeping it to just three concepts so we can really dive deep into each one.

Speaker 1:

The first component is core value identification. This involves clearly articulating three to five non-negotiable values that define your authentic leadership. These aren't generic professional values like excellence or integrity, by the way, fully know and fully suspect that you already are excellent and you already have integrity. But it's not about those generic ones. They're the specific principles that energize and guide your unique approach. So, for example, my client Amara. She identified one of her core values as intellectual honesty. Another one that she had was purposeful innovation. Those were two of her core leadership values and by naming those explicitly she could evaluate when organizational expectations aligned with or contradicted her authentic self. When faced with a situation where she was expected to present a strategic plan, she had concerns about. Her clear sense of intellectual honesty as a core value helped her find a way to express her concerns while still being effective in that environment.

Speaker 1:

In that context, the second component is strength reclamation. Now this involves identifying aspects of your introversion and cultural identity that are actually leadership strengths, not deficits, to overcome. For you as an introvert, these might include deep listening, thoughtful analysis or written communication. For Black women, these might include cognitive flexibility from navigating multiple cultural contexts when you go in from one place to another, figuring out which parts of your culture gets amplified. It might include perspective taking ability or it might include resilience, which is developed through overcoming systemic barriers.

Speaker 1:

Another one of my clients, denise. She reclaimed her natural tendency toward careful deliberation as a strategic strength rather than the overthinking it had often been, and she'd been labeled, as she reframed this, as scenario planning in her communications, helping others see the value in her natural approach. The third component is translation development. Now, this involves creating authentic ways to express your values and your strengths in language that resonates in your organization, without having the code switch away your authentic self. This is not about changing who you are. Let me say that again. This is not about changing who you are. It's about finding language that helps others recognize the value in your authentic approach. So, for example, one of our clients who valued thoughtful analysis developed a practice of saying I'd like to offer a perspective that considers a few different dimensions of this issue. This conveyed her authentic approach while signaling its strategic value Another one of my clients, Maya. She found ways to authentically share cultural references and perspectives as a Black woman instead of censoring herself. So when discussing a market expansion strategy, she shared how her experience navigating different cultural contexts gave her insight into potential implementation challenges the team hadn't even yet considered. This wasn't forced diversity contribution, it was authentic perspective that added genuine strategic value.

Speaker 1:

I think I've talked here before, on this podcast or on previous episodes, about myself and how I've had to navigate this, including things like I would never curse. I'm a natural cursor right, I do, it's part of who I am, and when I would go into my professional environment, I would completely censor that, even sometimes when the situation called for a curse and I did it because I didn't want people to think of me and see my street background. I didn't want people to look at me given that in most cases I was the only Black person, let alone Black woman, in that environment, and think that I was uneducated or not deserving to be, that I had to use language that was not quote unquote professional in this setting. But then what I found was when I relaxed that censorship of myself, when I used a curse word here and there and allowed my thoughts and my words to flow more freely, people were endeared by it. Surprisingly, I thought people would be repelled by it, but people were endeared by it, and it just goes to show that when you are being who you really are, people can see it, they can feel it, they can sense it and if they are for you, they will continue to be for you. You do not have to pretend or switch or act in a way that goes against who you really are, because people can feel that they can see it as well. So I'm sharing these specific examples because I want you to see how this looks in practice. This isn't about grand declarations of authenticity. It's about small strategic shifts in how you position your authentic self in your professional environment.

Speaker 1:

Now let me share a more detailed story that shows how this framework transformed one of my clients' entire leadership journey. Okay, so my client her name is Kimberly and she was a senior manager in a global consulting firm who experienced and was experiencing what she called identity exhaustion. She was tired, okay, way tired. She was constantly, always monitoring her language, her appearance and her behavior to match the firm's unwritten executive norms. She described feeling like she was performing a character in most of her professional interactions which left her completely drained and questioning whether or not she wanted the executive leadership and what it was worth. Was it up to and worth the psychological costs that she felt like she was experiencing? As she put it, I'm already tired and I'm not even at the executive level yet. If this is what it takes, I don't know if I can sustain it.

Speaker 1:

Through our work together, she identified her core leadership values, which were intellectual honesty, contextual understanding and purposeful innovation. She also reclaimed her introvert strengths of deep listening and systematic thinking as leadership assets rather than as deficits. Rather than continuing to mimic the assertive, rapid-fire interaction style of her extroverted colleagues, she developed her own approach to meetings. She would listen deeply, take detailed notes and then offer a synthesized insight that connected multiple perspectives, either during the meeting, at the end of the meeting or after the meeting. So this was not her performing. It was her natural strength and just strategically positioned. She also stopped hiding her cultural references and perspective as a Black woman, instead finding ways to translate those insights into strategic value.

Speaker 1:

The results were remarkable, both personally and professionally. On a personal level, she reported feeling like herself at work for the first time in years, with dramatically more energy for actual leadership rather than impression management. As she told me, I used to need the entire weekend to recover from the performance of the work week. Now I have energy to actually enjoy my life and think creatively about work. I know I can relate to that sentiment. I'm sure you can as well. Now, even more significantly, senior leaders began to see her authentic perspective as uniquely valuable and within six months of implementing this approach, she was invited to join a high visibility strategic initiative. Within nine months, she was invited to join a high visibility strategic initiative. Within nine months, she was promoted. She went from director to AVP, a role she secured not by code switching more, but by code switching less. And, as she put it, I was promoted for being myself, not despite it. Now I know you are probably thinking, nicole, this sounds great, but how do I actually get started on this Great? Let me give you some practical tips and things that you can implement this week.

Speaker 1:

Step one conduct a personal code switching audit For three days. Keep brief notes about moments you find yourself code switching and, for each instance, note what triggered the code switch, what specific aspects of yourself you modified and how it felt energetically. What this audit is going to do is it's going to reveal patterns that you weren't consciously aware of. One of my clients when she did this, she discovered that she was code switching not just in formal presentations, but in virtually every interaction with senior leadership, creating a huge, huge energy depletion. The second thing you're going to do is you're going to select one specific situation where you typically code switch heavily, then identify one authentic strength or value that you typically suppress in that situation, and then the third thing you're going to do is develop what I call a strategic authenticity bridge, a specific way to express that authentic strength or value that feels true to you but is framed in language that connects to organizational values. For example, if you value thoughtful consideration but find yourself rushing to provide immediate answers because that seems expected in your work, setting your strategic authenticity bridge might be. This question deserves thoughtful consideration. I'd like to take two days to analyze it fully and provide you with a comprehensive response by the end of the week. This honors your authentic value while demonstrating its benefits in terms that matter to the organization and to your colleagues and to your peers, and step four would be to implement this bridge in the next relevant situation and notice both how it feels for you and how others respond to you.

Speaker 1:

Many clients find that even small increases in authenticity create significant energy renewal and often surprisingly positive responses from colleagues who value the authentic contribution more than the performance. One of my clients told me that she was so nervous to stop code switching in executive meetings, but then she started offering more of her authentic perspective and the CEO actually thanked her for bringing a fresh viewpoint to the discussion. What she thought was a liability turned out to be exactly what they needed. Okay, lady leader, as we wrap up today, I want to leave you with this thought the journey to executive leadership doesn't have to cost you your authentic self. In fact, strategically embracing your authenticity is the very thing that accelerates your advancement, while preserving the energy that makes your leadership uniquely powerful the research that we talked about earlier in the episode. It is absolutely clear Authentic leaders build more trust, they create more engagement and they advance more quickly than those who are focused on adapting or code switching.

Speaker 1:

For Black, introverted women, this insight is particularly liberating. You don't need to exhaust yourself trying to become someone else to reach executive leadership. Start with the code switching reduction exercise I shared and notice how it impacts both your energy and your effectiveness. Small shifts toward authentic leadership can create powerful ripple effects in your career trajectory. Next week, we'll be exploring a totally new but powerful strategy, and it's specifically designed for introverted women, and it's all about managerial courage. If you are ready to develop your complete authentic leadership approach, don't forget to register for my free webinar on April 12th. From Invisible to Incredible the Black, introverted Woman's Path to Executive Leadership. The link is in the show notes for you. Okay, and until next time, remember, keep leading your introvert way.