The Mold Is Not a Measurement: When Being Yourself Becomes the Development Area
Many African diaspora professionals receive persistent vague feedback about presence and style even when their work excels, a pattern explored through Wolof values kersa and jom and research on covering, double binds, prove-it-again bias, and executive presence. The article helps distinguish growth-oriented feedback from demands to become someone else and offers practical ways to adapt delivery without sacrificing identity.
Many professionals from the African diaspora reach a point in their careers where the work is no longer in question, yet the feedback keeps coming: be more approachable, less serious, think about the bigger picture, work on your presence. This deep dive looks at that pattern through the Wolof values of kersa and jom, and through research on covering, the double bind, prove-it-again bias and executive presence. It explains why traits that signal respect and dignity at home are often read differently at work, why vague feedback about style is so hard to act on, and how to tell feedback that helps you grow from feedback that asks you to become someone else. It closes with practical steps for adapting how you deliver your work without giving up who you are.
There is a kind of feedback many of us in the diaspora learn to recognize a few years into a career in a Western organization. It does not concern the work. The work is done, and done well. Deadlines are met, results are delivered, and the goals written down in January are marked complete in December.
The feedback concerns something else. Be more approachable. Be a little less serious. Think about the bigger picture. Work on your presence. Slow down. Step up.
If being yourself has become your development area, how can Wolof values help you tell whether the feedback is about growth or about fitting a mold that was never yours to begin with?