I remember the first time that I understood what it meant to have power in the workplace.
Ironically, I was a 20-something HR coordinator meeting with the board president and at the time I had no idea why.
In hindsight, it's because I held a lot of informal power in the workplace and held three different forms of power.
- Expert Power: I had a deep understanding of the organization, our processes, and how to accomplish our goals.
- Referent Power: I had built positive relationships with the managers I supported, and even if we didn't always see things eye to eye... they knew I was going to do everything in my power to reach our goals.
- Informational Power: I held all of the cards when it came to recruitment, hiring, and hr operations.
It wasn't until many months later that I began to understand why I never acknowledged that power in the first place.
In my opinion, it's because Black women are often conditioned to only recognize and respect "legitimate". That's the type of power that is based on a system or hierarchy, like a title.
Or, "coercive" power, which is the ability to control, withhold, or enforce negative consequences.
It happens to most of us at a young age, when we're told we can't question our parents, or we must listen to a teacher. And as little Black girls, facing the realities of coercive power in racialized bodies is already a given.
As a result, it's so much harder for us to recognize other forms of power within others, much less ourselves. White supremacy culture truly is a well-oiled machine.
I finally recognized how much power I had when I realized I was being underpaid.
I had to sit down and acknowledge how many of the HR processes I was really handling and how critical my work was in the organization.
And that is the power so many Black women who are literally holding entire teams, departments, and organizations have and are underleveraging.
That realization helped me to feel comfortable "throwing some weight around" to get exactly what I wanted.
I want you to get what you want out of your career too, so I sat down with the delightful DIVA method founder herself, Kisha Wynter, to talk about how Black women can tap into their own authentic power to get everything they want in their careers.
WATCH THE PODCAST EPISODE NOW
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Black Woman Bliss Guide to Getting What You Want at Work
A guide for full members of the Black Woman Bliss Community
