I spent years inside the system. I know where it keeps its decisions.
At the State Department, I designed leadership programs for some of the most capable people in government. The Black leaders in those rooms were brilliant, strategic, and delivering. They were also being promoted more slowly than their White peers.
Nothing in their performance explained it. Something else did.
The Second Org Chart
Every organization has two charts. One is printed: titles, reporting lines, dotted lines. The other is never written down. It is the web of sponsors, mentors, and architects who decide whose name gets said when the room is closed, whose risk gets covered, and whose work gets credited.
Daya was excellent at her job and kept hearing she was not quite ready for the next one. Twelve months of coaching later, she held the seat, and she was sponsoring a junior analyst into a room that analyst could not yet enter alone. Her skills had not changed. She could finally see the second chart and work it on purpose. (Daya is a composite)
The Book
That chart is the subject of my book, The Second Org Chart, arriving in spring 2027. It lays out the POWER Framework: Position, Own, Wield, Reshape. Five concepts that move you from locating yourself on the second chart to changing whom it serves.
How I work
Private coaching for Black leaders navigating predominantly white institutions. Three pathways, from 3 to 12 months [See the Pathways]
The Second Org Chart Masterclass. A 12-week cohort built on the book [Learn more]
The Masterclass for Sponsors, Mentors and Architects. For the people who hold the power to open the second chart, and want to use it well. [Learn more]
25 years of executive coaching | MSOD, Organization Development | Certified in Hogan, DISC and IDI | Founder, Jefferson Leadership