Being a woman at work and in business
It was when I started my first job, after graduating, that I realised the significance of being a woman, a black woman at that, in a professional environment.
As a graduate, I was confident, bold and ambitious. I had been unleashed into the world and could start my journey towards being a rich so that I could take care of my family and, in my naïve mind, nothing and no one would or could get in the way of me achieving my goals.
In my first interview with a corporate recruitment business, I asked the manager, “how much is the top biller bringing in each year?”
He informed me that he was billing roughly £650k per year and was taking home just under £150k from that.
I asked how long he took to get to that position. He explained that he did it in two years, which was quick so it would probably take me longer than that. I confidently informed him that I would do it in half the time.
Things started changing
Within six months I was bringing in £70k per month, which had me on track to achieve over £800k in a year. I even surprised myself!
It was when I began achieving results that I started noticing a change in the behaviour of my colleagues.
The top biller said to me, “I’m surprised you’re experiencing so much success.”
“Really why?”, I asked him.
“Well, you know, you’re black and a woman” he continued.
I was taken aback. What did that mean? Was I not supposed to be successful because of my skin colour and my sex? There was one other top biller in the public sector division billing more than him, and she was a white woman. He would often call her a bitch, but I assumed that they had some grievance against her that was unknown to me.
I looked around the organization, through a different lens, and for the first time noticed that I was one of a handful of women in a male-dominated office. A smaller number of us were recruitment consultants, and the rest were admin support or candidate consultants, and only two of us in our division were top billers.
More feedback
I eventually got a new job and was working with a preppy guy on my team. We were going to a meeting once, and he said: “Linda, I am learning a lot from you”.
“Oh really, like what?” I replied.
“I’m learning how to deal with angry black women”.
I was stunned and couldn’t find any words to reply.
I didn’t realise I was angry and he couldn’t explain what made me so.
I had many situations that followed from managers sabotaging my work, clients not making eye contact during meetings, other clients not responding to my emails but responding to my white male counterparts when I asked them to help me get a response, being excluded from teams etc.
My final job, before starting my business ended with an ultimatum with one of the founding partners instructing me to keep my opinions to myself or decide to leave but this individual gave me the insight to have compassion instead of resentment.
I enquired into his background and his experience with other women, and he explained that he always clashed with women in companies he had owned or had worked. He also revealed that he went to an all-boys private school. I started to see all of these incidents were not personal. The person discriminating or misbehaving was doing so from a place of ignorance or ingrained behaviours adopted from their past.
It affected my confidence and self-esteem for a while due to feeling defeated, and I became timid and reserved then I went the other way and became defensive and fiery but learned balance which enabled me to achieve success by being my authentic self regardless of the obstacles I encountered.
What now?
I am now extremely passionate about supporting women in being the best versions of themselves and am hosting an event to bring executive and entrepreneurial women together to connect, collaborate and evolve by learning how to identify their triggers and blind spots using tools to overcome any limitations or barriers.
The first event is on the 21st of March at 6 pm in partnership with Eight Members Club.
If you are an executive or entrepreneur or know someone who would be interested in attending, please forward this link for more info and to rsvp.
I am also working with organisations committed to improving diversity and inclusion within their organisations to deliver diversity coaching which focuses on working 1-2-1 with leaders, addressing existing beliefs and unconscious bias creating space to transform those patterns to affect sustainable change resulting in better working environments and improved business outcomes. I also work with diverse groups on shifting their mindset to ensure they can reach their full potential.
If you would like to discuss any of the above with me, please contact me on the details below.
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Linda Mbagwu
linda@lindambagwu.com
07904851085