Navigating Your Leadership Journey: Tailored Tips for Black Men in Mid-Level Roles
By Dominic George · January 10th 2026

Happy Saturday! Word Count: 1734…13.21 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.

The Trap of Being the “Go To” Black Man

There is a moment in many Black men’s leadership journey when being dependable quietly turns into being indispensable. At first, it feels earned. You deliver. You fix what is broken. You stay late. You carry weight others avoid. People notice. Your name comes up in meetings. You become the person everyone trusts to get things done.

And then one day, you realize something uncomfortable.

You are always needed, but rarely advanced.

This is the trap of being the go to guy. It does not start as a problem. It starts as validation. In environments where Black men are often scrutinized more than supported, being seen as reliable feels like safety. It feels like proof that you belong. It feels like protection against doubt. So you lean into it. You overperform. You anticipate needs before they are named. You absorb chaos to keep the machine moving.

But leadership is not measured by how much you carry. It is measured by how much you shape.

Useful Versus Influential Leadership

The go to Black guy becomes valuable to the system, but invisible to succession. The work you do keeps things running, yet the story being told about you is operational, not strategic. You are trusted with execution, not vision. You are invited to fix problems, not define direction.

This is where many Black men get stuck. Not because they lack skill, but because their excellence is quietly miscategorized.

In The Authentic Edge: Leading Without Losing Yourself, I talk about the difference between being useful and being influential. Useful leaders are appreciated. Influential leaders are remembered. One keeps the lights on. The other decides where the building is going.

The go to guy often becomes the shock absorber for leadership gaps above him. When priorities are unclear, you clarify them. When communication breaks down, you translate it. When accountability is missing, you step in. You become the unofficial leader without the title, the authority, or the protection.

And the organization gets comfortable with that arrangement.

Comfort Creates Invisible Ceilings

Comfort is dangerous. Because comfort rarely leads to promotion. It leads to dependency.

You begin to notice that you are looped into everything, but consulted on nothing that truly changes the game. Your calendar is full, but your influence is capped. You are praised for your work ethic, but not sponsored for your future. You are labeled dependable, steady, solid. All compliments that quietly keep you exactly where you are.

Part One ends here for a reason. Because this is the moment of reckoning. The point where you must decide whether you will continue to be consumed by the role or reposition yourself as a leader who shapes outcomes, not just delivers them.

Additional Tip for Black Men: If you do not name your leadership, the system will name your labor. Practice describing your work in language that highlights judgment, risk assessment, and decision making rather than effort and responsiveness.

Solution Shift: In your next update, meeting, or performance conversation, explicitly state how your actions shaped outcomes, aligned stakeholders, or mitigated risk so your leadership is seen and not just your output.

From “Go To Black Man” To Forward Reclaiming Your Leadership Trajectory

The shift out of the go to trap requires more than boundaries. It requires a reframing of how you see your role and how others experience your leadership.

The first shift is internal. You must stop equating worth with workload. Many Black men have been conditioned to believe that carrying more proves value. But leadership maturity demands discernment. Every yes teaches people how to use you. Every unchallenged assumption becomes your assignment.

Ask yourself this question honestly. If I disappeared for two weeks, would the organization struggle to operate, or would it struggle to decide?

If the answer is operate, you are operationally critical. If the answer is decide, you are strategically necessary. One gets replaced. The other gets retained.

The second shift is narrative. You have to learn how to name your work differently. Go to guys often undersell the strategic thinking embedded in what they do. You say you helped out. You jumped in. You supported. But what you actually did was identify risk, align stakeholders, and execute under ambiguity.

Protecting Capacity Signals Power

Language matters. Leadership perception is built through storytelling, not just results. If you do not frame your work as leadership, someone else will frame it as labor.

The third shift is selective excellence. This is hard for high performers. You cannot do everything anymore. Not because you are incapable, but because your time is now a signal. Where you show up communicates what you are positioning yourself for. When you are always available, you are never elevated.

Strategic leaders protect their capacity so they can invest it where it changes outcomes. That means letting some things wobble. It means allowing others to learn through discomfort. It means trusting that the system can survive without your constant intervention.

This is not disengagement. It is evolution.

Visibility that Moves Power

The fourth shift is sponsorship over approval. Go to guys often chase appreciation from everyone. Leaders chase alignment with the right people. You need advocates who speak your name when you are not in the room. That requires visibility beyond performance. It requires relationships rooted in trust, not just reliability.

This is where many Black men hesitate. Because visibility has not always been safe. But invisibility has a cost too. And that cost is stagnation.

The Authentic Edge is about leading without losing yourself. And sometimes, losing yourself looks like being everything to everyone except the leader you are becoming.

Being the go to guy is not the destination. It is a phase. A proving ground. But if you stay there too long, it becomes a ceiling disguised as praise.

Your work is not just to get things done. Your work is to decide what matters, who decides it, and how the organization moves forward.

That is the shift. From being needed to being followed. From being reliable to being respected for your leadership judgment.

And that is how you escape the trap without burning bridges or shrinking your impact.

You do not need to do more. You need to lead differently.

Additional Tip for Black Men: Progress accelerates when the right people advocate for you, not when everyone appreciates you. Shift your focus from broad approval to building intentional relationships with leaders who influence advancement and decision making.

Solution Shift: This week, schedule a single intentional conversation with a senior leader or sponsor to discuss your long term leadership trajectory and the type of impact you want to be known for, anchoring the dialogue in vision rather than tasks.

Closing Thoughts:

In summary, being the “Go To Black Guy” often starts as recognition for reliability but quietly becomes a leadership trap. When you are known primarily for fixing problems and carrying weight, your excellence gets categorized as operational rather than strategic. This keeps you busy, praised, and essential to the system, while limiting advancement and influence.

The shift requires redefining your value. Leadership is not about workload but about shaping direction, naming your impact strategically, protecting your capacity, and building sponsorship rather than approval. Moving from go to to go forward means evolving from being needed to being followed and from executing plans to helping decide what matters next.

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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© 2026 Vision Leadership for LIFE - LLC. All rights reserved.
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.

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