Another leadership development program for women launched last week. Another executive asking me why their “high-potential” Black women leaders keep leaving.

Here’s what I told her: “Your pipeline doesn’t protect against your layoffs.”

The same Black women your organization spent thousands developing through leadership programs? They’re the ones getting “restructured out” when budget cuts come. The mentorship relationships, executive presence training, and sponsor connections don’t shield them from being first on the chopping block.

Your leadership pipeline is a mirage in a desert of economic uncertainty.

The Pipeline That Leads Nowhere

When people discuss women’s leadership advancement, they’re usually talking about white women. The data makes this clear. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report, women’s representation at the C-suite level has grown from 17% to 29% over the past decade. This progress is primarily driven by white women’s gains, with white women projected to reach leadership parity by 2046. Black women? We climb your leadership ladder only to discover it’s built on quicksand.

Research shows that in 2021, white women held 32.6% of managerial positions in the US, while Black women occupied only 4.3% of such positions. The promotion disparities are even more stark. For every 100 men and 89 white women promoted to manager, only 58 Black women are promoted. After notable improvements in 2021 and 2022, Black women’s promotion rates in 2024 actually regressed to 2020 levels. 

Companies invest heavily in developing us, then cut us first when times get tough. We become “expensive” rather than “executive material.” Our leadership development becomes evidence we’re “overinvested in” rather than proof we’re ready for more responsibility.

We’ve been building our own advancement strategies because yours have always been unreliable.

The Development Paradox

Here’s the cruel irony. The more “leadership ready” a Black woman becomes through corporate programs, the more vulnerable she becomes during layoffs.

Those communication skills that help her navigate complex stakeholder relationships? “Too much process” during restructuring.

The strategic thinking that made her a high-potential candidate? “Not aligned with new direction” when budget cuts come.

The advocacy for inclusive practices that leadership development taught her to demonstrate? “Not a culture fit” when equity becomes “nice to have.”

The skills your programs develop become the reasons your leaders get eliminated.

What We’ve Learned from Necessity

While organizations create leadership programs that teach networking and executive presence, Black women have been mastering those skills through necessity. And in ways your programs could never teach.

We’ve learned to build influence without formal authority. To create change through relationship networks when systemic power is denied. To navigate hostile environments while maintaining our integrity and achieving results.

Most importantly, we’ve learned to create value that exists outside organizational structures.

These aren’t just leadership skills. These are survival skills that translate directly to entrepreneurship.

The Real Leadership Development

The programs that work for white women often miss what Black women need. They assume we’re starting from the same baseline, facing the same challenges, with the same job security and access to informal networks.

We’re not.

Your leadership development assumes:

• We have sponsors who will protect us during layoffs.
• Our performance reviews will be objective during restructuring.
• Our leadership style will be valued when “cultural fit” becomes the deciding factor.
• Our advancement track is stable enough to invest in long-term.

Research confirms these assumptions don’t hold. Studies show that conventional women’s leadership development programs often fail Black women because they’re built on decades of advice designed for white women. A comprehensive analysis of intersectional leadership barriers found that traditional leadership development models view gender and race as static factors rather than dynamic elements that continuously influence Black women’s experiences.

None of these assumptions hold true for Black women in many modern-day organizations.

We’ve been doing this all along. Now we’re doing it for ourselves.

The Mentorship Mirage

Organizations love to talk about mentorship for women. But when Black women’s mentors get cut, or our sponsors lose influence, or our champions leave for other opportunities, what happens to our “pipeline”?

We face unique dynamics that your programs don’t address:

• Finding mentors who understand our experiences and can protect us during cuts.
• Navigating mentorship across racial lines when “culture fit” becomes a weapon.
• Building relationships without being seen as “needy” while still getting real advocacy.
• Getting sponsors who will actually spend political capital on us when budgets tighten.

Most leadership programs create relationships that evaporate during the first round of layoffs.

What Actually Works

In my research and client work, I’ve found that Black women advance most sustainably when we:

Build External Networks: We thrive in communities that exist outside any single organization. Professional associations, industry groups, and entrepreneurship circles where our value isn’t tied to one company’s “development” of us.

Develop Portable Skills: We focus on capabilities that travel with us. Relationship building, problem-solving, strategic thinking, and innovation management rather than company-specific knowledge or internal political navigation.

Create Multiple Value Streams: We build expertise, thought leadership, consulting capabilities, and business development skills that generate opportunities regardless of employment status.

Invest in Authentic Relationships: We prioritize connections based on genuine mutual support rather than transactional mentorship that depends on organizational hierarchy.

The Question Organizations Should Be Asking

Instead of “How do we develop more Black women leaders?” ask “How do we create security for the leaders we develop?”

Because here’s what’s happening. Your leadership programs are becoming entrepreneurship boot camps.

Every Black woman you train in strategic thinking, relationship building, and executive communication becomes more prepared to compete with you when you inevitably cut her.

Research indicates that leadership skill training plays a crucial role in enhancing entrepreneurs’ capabilities, confidence, and productivity. Studies have found that entrepreneurial leadership training directly translates to business success, with mentored entrepreneurs raising seven times more capital than unmentored ones. 

You’re funding your future competition.

The Real Pipeline

Black women don’t need to be developed to fit your pipeline. We need to be supported to build our own.

The strategies that help Black women advance sustainably actually create leaders who can thrive anywhere. External networks, portable skills, authentic relationships, multiple value streams.

Including outside your organization.

What I’m Seeing Now

The Black women who’ve been through your leadership programs aren’t just starting any businesses. They’re starting sophisticated businesses that directly compete with their former employers.

They’re taking your training, your methodologies, your client relationships, and your institutional knowledge and building better versions of what you do.

The executive communication skills you taught them? They’re using them to pitch investors.

The strategic thinking you developed? They’re applying it to disrupt your market.

The relationship building you mentored? They’re using it to recruit your best clients.

Your leadership development didn’t create loyal executives. It created informed competitors.

The Choice

You can keep investing in leadership pipelines that don’t protect the leaders you develop. You can continue developing Black women only to cut them when economic pressures mount.

Or you can recognize that the women who’ve learned to lead despite your systems have exactly the skills needed to lead through uncertainty, complexity, and change.

But understand this. We’re building our own pipelines now. And they’re not just leading to corner offices. They’re leading to ownership.

The Black women you’re developing today won’t just be ready for your C-suite tomorrow. They’ll be ready to make your C-suite irrelevant.

Ready to build leadership that can’t be “restructured” away? I’m developing frameworks for authentic leadership development outside traditional corporate structures. Let’s connect. 

Lead Boldly. Care Deeply. Change Everything.