Navigating Your Leadership Journey: Tailored Tips for Black Men in Mid-Level Roles
By Dominic George · December 27th 2025

Happy Saturday! Word Count: 2030…15.37 minutes. Copy edited by Dominic George

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Vision Leadership for Life newsletter, designed with the specific challenges faced by Black men in mid-level leadership positions in mind. We understand the unique journey you’re on, and our goal is to provide practical insights to help you thrive in your professional evolution. So, lets dive into today’s topic and Elevate Your Leadership.

High Performance Without High Blood Pressure for Black Men

There is a quiet crisis happening in leadership spaces that rarely gets named out loud. It shows up as chest tightness before Monday meetings. It lives in the jaw clenching during performance reviews. It whispers in the silence after yet another late night email that could have waited until morning. For many Black men in leadership, high performance has been framed as a tradeoff. You deliver results at the cost of your peace. You earn the title, but sacrifice your health. You climb the ladder while your body quietly absorbs the pressure.

This newsletter exists to disrupt that narrative.

High performance does not have to come with high blood pressure. It does not have to require constant hyper vigilance. It does not have to mean living in survival mode just because you are one of the few or the first or the only in the room. The truth is that many Black men have been conditioned to associate excellence with exhaustion. We were taught that rest was earned only after everything else was done. We learned early that mistakes would be judged more harshly and that ease could be misinterpreted as laziness. So we over prepared. We over delivered. We over extended. And eventually, we paid for it physically.

I know this story because I have lived it, and because I coach leaders who are living it right now.

High Blood Pressure in Leadership

Vision Leadership for LIFE was built on a simple, but radical premise. You should not have to lose yourself to lead well. You should not have to choose between impact and integrity. You should not have to grind your nervous system into the ground to prove your worth. LIFE means Living Intentional for Ever. Not just when the calendar opens up. Not just when the pressure eases. Forever.

The question is not whether you can perform at a high level. You already are. The question is whether you are performing in a way that is sustainable, grounded, and aligned with who you actually are.

High blood pressure in leadership is not only a medical issue. It is a cultural one. It is the result of constant code switching. It is the weight of representing an entire community in every room you enter. It is the unspoken expectation to be both exceptional and agreeable. It is the fear of being labeled difficult if you name what is not working. Over time, that pressure shows up in the body. Elevated cortisol. Shallow breathing. Chronic fatigue. Sleep deprivation. Digestive issues. Headaches that no amount of water seems to fix.

And yet, many men normalize it. They say this is just the cost of doing business. They say this is what leadership looks like. They say they will slow down later.

Later is not guaranteed.

High performance leadership that destroys your health is not leadership. It is a slow erosion. And the tragedy is that the very traits that make you effective clarity, decisiveness, emotional intelligence, vision are the same traits that get compromised when your body is under constant stress.

Additional Tip for Black Men: Build nervous system regulation into your leadership practice instead of relying on adrenaline to push through pressure.

Solution Shift: Pause before high stakes conversations, slow your breathing, and choose a deliberate response so your leadership presence comes from clarity rather than stress reactivity.

Black Men, Redefine Excellence Without Burning Yourself Out

One of the most powerful shifts I see when coaching Black men transitioning from mid level to senior leadership is the moment they realize that pressure is not proof of importance. Busyness is not the same as impact. And urgency is often a habit, not a requirement.

High performance without high blood pressure starts with redefining what excellence actually looks like.

Excellence is not being the last one online at night. Excellence is building systems that do not rely on your constant presence. Excellence is knowing when to push and when to pause. Excellence is setting boundaries that protect your energy so you can show up fully where it matters most. Excellence is choosing strategic restraint over reactive overwork.

There is a difference between intensity and intentionality. Intensity burns hot and fast. Intentionality sustains.

Many Black men were never taught how to lead from intentionality, because survival demanded intensity. When the stakes are high and the margin for error is slim, you stay ready. But what kept you safe early in your career may now be the very thing holding you back.

Senior Leadership Re-Evaluation

Senior leadership does not require you to do more. It requires you to decide better.

This is where the conversation about stress must shift. Stress is not only about workload. It is about lack of agency. It is about unclear expectations. It is about performing for approval rather than operating from purpose. It is about saying yes when your body is asking for no.

When I work with leaders inside Vision Leadership for LIFE, we talk about leadership as a whole body experience. Your thoughts matter. Your emotions matter. Your physical state matters. If your body is constantly in fight or flight, your decision making narrows. Your creativity shrinks. Your patience thins. You become reactive instead of responsive.

High performance leadership requires regulation, not repression.

That means learning how to slow your breath before you respond. It means recognizing when a meeting does not require your immediate reaction. It means allowing silence to do some of the work for you. It means building recovery into your schedule the same way you build deliverables.

This is not softness. This is strategy.

Black Men, Stay Calm!

One of the most dangerous myths Black men in leadership carry is that calm equals complacent. In reality, calm is power. Calm allows you to see patterns instead of just problems. Calm helps you choose influence over force. Calm gives you access to wisdom, not just information.

Think about the leaders you respect most. Not the loudest. Not the most frantic. The ones who walk into a room and shift the energy without raising their voice. The ones who listen deeply and speak deliberately. The ones who do not rush to prove themselves. That is regulated leadership.

High blood pressure leadership often comes from a fear of being replaced or overlooked. But high performance leadership comes from knowing your value is not fragile.

When you lead from that place, your body responds. Your shoulders drop. Your breathing deepens. Your sleep improves. Your conversations become clearer. Your presence becomes steadier.

This does not mean the pressure disappears. Leadership will always involve responsibility. But there is a difference between carrying weight with strength and letting it crush you.

A major theme in my book The Authentic Edge Leading Without Losing Yourself is that authenticity is not about saying everything you feel. It is about being aligned enough to choose your response instead of being hijacked by stress. Authentic leadership is grounded leadership.

Grounded Leadership Protects Your Health.

High performance without high blood pressure also requires unlearning the belief that rest is weakness. Rest is not the opposite of productivity. It is a prerequisite for it. Your nervous system needs cycles. Your mind needs space. Your body needs care.

You cannot pour vision from an empty vessel.

This is especially critical for Black men because we often carry generational expectations alongside professional ones. We are taught to be strong, dependable, unbreakable. But strength without support becomes strain.

Leadership is not meant to be lonely. Yet many Black men isolate at the top, because they feel misunderstood or burdened by representation politics. That isolation compounds stress.

One of the most effective interventions I see is community. Not performative networking, but honest connection with other leaders who understand the nuances you navigate. Spaces where you do not have to explain yourself. Spaces where you can take the armor off. Spaces where your humanity is not up for debate.

Vision Leadership for LIFE was created to be one of those spaces.

Additional Tip for Black Men: Replace isolation with intentional leadership community that affirms your lived experience and vision.

Solution Shift: Seek out or create a trusted space with other Black men in leadership where honest dialogue and shared wisdom reduce pressure and strengthen your long term effectiveness.

Closing Thoughts:

In summary, high performance leadership is not about doing everything yourself. It is about building trust. Trust in your team. Trust in your judgment. Trust in your ability to recover.

If your leadership success is built on adrenaline, it will eventually fail you. If it is built on alignment, it will sustain you.

So ask yourself some hard questions.

What does my body feel like at the end of most days?
Where am I carrying stress that is not actually mine to carry?
What would change if I stopped equating urgency with importance?
What kind of leader do I want to be remembered as and what kind of man do I want to be healthy enough to enjoy that legacy?

High performance without high blood pressure is not a slogan. It is a leadership philosophy. It is a commitment to long term impact over short term validation. It is choosing to lead in a way that honors your mind, your body, and your values.

You deserve to lead well and live well.

That is not indulgence. That is vision.

And vision, when grounded in intention, changes everything.

That’s the new path forward.

Subscribe to the Vision Leadership for LIFE newsletter now for early access, if you want your insider tips, exclusive insights, and access to the strategies behind your leadership guidebook.

Get access to your leadership guide book by clicking this link: https://a.co/d/5M2eVzx

Fellas, your journey is both unique and powerful. If you’re ready to start leading from your authentic edge, then your on the roadmap for greatness. When you’re leading from within, you are not only advancing your career but also paving the way for future leaders.

Feel free to reach out for personalized coaching or share your success stories.

Your success is our shared triumph.

Real Talk: If you’re ready to:

• Reclaim your voice in high-stakes spaces.

• Lead with strategy, not survival.

• Build a legacy that doesn’t require you to perform to belong.

You don’t have to lose yourself to lead. You just have to reclaim who you are, and lead from there.

Have a POWERFUL Day!

Dominic George

Founder, Vision Leadership for LIFE - LLC

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The content, concepts, and original expressions in this newsletter are the exclusive intellectual property of Dominic George and Vision Leadership for LIFE, LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission. This newsletter is intended for personal development and leadership growth. Respect the work. Honor the source.

The Authentic Edge™ framework and related materials are proprietary to Vision Leadership for LIFE - LLC.