How Black Men Can Reclaim Their Leadership Story

Vision Leadership for Life Newsletter

Dominic George
August 30, 2025

How Black Men Can Reclaim Their Leadership Story

Black men, let me speak to you directly.

Too often, in leadership you arrive at the executive table and discover that your story, the one you worked so hard to build through talent, sacrifice, and resilience has been rewritten by others. Instead of being recognized as the strategist, the innovator, the steady leader, you are framed as the “diversity hire,” the “safe choice,” or the one who must constantly prove he belongs. This distortion of narrative is not accidental. It is systemic. And unless we reclaim our story, we risk being trapped in a leadership identity that was never authored by us.

In my book The Authentic Edge: Leading Without Losing Yourself, I talk about the quiet pressures that shape how we lead. Black men are often conditioned to survive by shrinking themselves, by muting their brilliance, by conforming to a leadership style that is palatable to others. That survival strategy may get you into the room, but it will never allow you to own it. The executive table demands presence, and presence comes from alignment between who you are and how you lead.

This is why reclaiming your executive story is not optional, it is necessary.

The Danger of the Borrowed Narrative

Many Black man in leadership has faced this moment: you walk into the boardroom and feel the weight of perception pressing down before you even speak. Your colleagues have already written their script about you. You are either the “fixer,” brought in to solve a diversity optics problem, or the “enforcer,” tasked with managing issues no one else wants to touch. That script has nothing to do with your actual skillset, your vision, or your potential.

Borrowing the narrative others write for you may feel easier in the short term. But here is the truth: if you do not reclaim authorship, the borrowed story becomes your legacy. It erases the brilliance you bring. It silences the voice you fought so hard to cultivate.

This is not just about perception. It impacts opportunities, compensation, and legacy. When your story is misaligned, you are less likely to be considered for stretch roles, less likely to be trusted with innovation, and less likely to leave the imprint of leadership you are fully capable of.

What It Means to Reclaim Your Story

Reclaiming your executive story means disrupting the narrative others have written and declaring one rooted in your authentic leadership DNA. This is the essence of the Authentic Edge: Leading Without Losing Yourself.

Your story must be told from a place of agency, not apology. It means naming your values, articulating your vision, and standing in rooms unapologetically as yourself. It means refusing to trade cultural authenticity for proximity to power. And it means anchoring your leadership not in what others expect you to do, but in who you know you are called to be.

Reclaiming your story is also about aligning performance with presence. Too often, Black men are over-mentored and under-sponsored. We are taught to perform at a high level but are rarely taught how to shape the narrative of our performance in ways that translate into influence. Reclaiming your story means turning results into reputation, and reputation into strategic positioning.

Real-World Scenarios: Where Stories Are Lost

The Silent Executive: A brilliant Black leader joins a senior team, but rarely speaks in meetings. His performance is stellar, but his silence allows others to define his contribution as “supporting” rather than “leading.” His story becomes one of competence without influence.
The Overextended Leader: Another brother takes on every assignment, thinking visibility will secure his promotion. Instead, he becomes the “go-to firefighter” rather than the “strategic visionary.” His story is reduced to a utility role rather than an executive presence.
The Token Seat: A Black executive is placed on a committee or board, but only for optics. Instead of driving transformation, he is sidelined. His story becomes one of symbolic representation, not substantive leadership.

Each of these scenarios reflects what happens when we let the system write our story. But each can be disrupted if we reclaim authorship.

ADVICE TIP FOR BLACK MEN: Claim your leadership story in every room by speaking clearly about your impact and not allowing silence to erase your presence.

Solution Shift:

Move from being defined by other people’s assumptions to actively framing your narrative as a leader of transformation.

Additional Tip for Black Men: Align your identity with your leadership presence by grounding yourself in your values instead of relying only on the title you hold.

Solution Shift: Move from being role focused to being identity driven, where your authenticity shapes how others experience your leadership.

The Strategy Behind Reclaiming Your Leadership Story

Strategies for Reclaiming Your Executive Story

Anchor in Identity, Not Role
Your role is temporary. Your identity as a leader is permanent. Lead with the values that transcend titles. This creates a narrative of consistency and integrity that outlives any position.
Translate Results into Narrative
Do not just deliver outcomes, frame them. If you elevated retention by 20 percent, articulate how you did it strategically. Own the story of transformation, not just the numbers.
Speak the Room into Alignment
Silence is not humility; it is erasure. Every time you enter a room, make your perspective heard. Speak with clarity and claim space with your voice.
Build Sponsors, Not Just Mentors
Mentors advise. Sponsors advocate. Your story gains momentum when others in power repeat it in rooms where you are absent.
Practice the “Executive Rewrite”
When someone mislabels your contribution, correct it publicly but gracefully. If they say, “He’s great at operations,” add, “Yes, and I also designed the long-term growth strategy that positioned the company for market expansion.”

The Cultural Dimension

Reclaiming your executive story is not just professional, it is cultural. For generations, Black men have been told to fit into scripts designed by systems that never imagined us as leaders. From history to the boardroom, our narrative has been managed by others. To reclaim it is an act of liberation.

This does not mean being combative. It means being intentional. It means recognizing that every board meeting, every presentation, every interview is not just about business, it is about legacy. You are carrying a narrative bigger than yourself, and every decision you make either reinforces or reclaims it.

A Call to Action

Black men, this is the moment. The executive table is not just a place to sit quietly and conform. It is a platform to lead boldly, authentically, and unapologetically. But to do that, you must reclaim your story.

The system will sometimes attempt to write you as secondary. Reclaiming your story means refusing to play a role in someone else’s script and instead declaring:

→ I am the author of my leadership.

→ I am not here to fit in.

→ I am here to redefine the table itself.

This is the Authentic Edge. This is Vision Leadership for LIFE. And this is your time.

ADVICE TIP FOR BLACK MEN: Results alone will not elevate you. You must narrate them in ways that build strategic positioning. Translate your results into influence by narrating how your outcomes connect to vision, growth, and long term strategy.

Solution Shift:

Move from being recognized only as someone who executes tasks to being seen as a visionary strategist shaping direction.

Additional Tip for Black Men: Mentorship is important, but sponsorship creates legacy. Build relationships with sponsors who will amplify your story in rooms where you are not present and expand opportunities for you.

Solution Shift: Move from receiving advice privately to cultivating advocacy that ensures your leadership story is spoken of publicly with authority.

Closing Thoughts:

In summary, reclaiming your executive leadership story is not about rewriting the past, it is about authoring the future with clarity, courage, and conviction. For Black men at the executive table, the path forward begins with naming who you are, aligning how you lead with what you value, and refusing to let others narrate your worth.

Stop borrowing scripts that minimize your brilliance and instead write the story that reflects your vision, impact, and legacy. If you remember nothing else, remember this: your story is your power. The moment you reclaim it, you stop being managed by systems and start shaping the future as only you can.

That’s the new path forward.

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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.