u/Beautiful_Winter633

I’ve been thinking a lot about how many Black women in corporate environments become experts at “competence masking.”

Not hiding incompetence.
Hiding capability.

Making ourselves smaller.
Softer.
Less direct.
Less ambitious.
Less visible.

Because somewhere along the way we learned that being TOO competent can trigger resistance, exclusion, or intimidation.

I work in leadership coaching now, and I see this pattern constantly among high-achieving women of color.

Women who are:
• leading without the title
• doing executive-level work without executive recognition
• mentoring everyone else while being overlooked themselves

I’m curious:
what workplace behavior did you learn that later realized was survival, not authenticity?

I’ve spent years working with high-performing women — especially women of color — who are objectively capable, experienced, and delivering results… yet still being perceived as “not quite ready” for leadership.

I started calling this Perception Lag™:
when your level evolves faster than how people perceive you.

What I noticed is that so many women aren’t struggling with capability.
They’re struggling with visibility, sponsorship, organizational bias, and being consistently underestimated despite performance.

It’s something I experienced myself in executive environments, and eventually it became the foundation of my coaching work.

Now I help women navigate:
• visibility without overperforming
• executive presence
• negotiating authority
• corporate politics
• perception management
• leadership positioning

Curious if anyone else has experienced this:
Have you ever felt like your capability and your title were completely disconnected?