Keesa C. Schreane - Corporations Compassion Culture

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KEESA C. SCHREANE

Copyright © 2021 by Keesa C. Schreane. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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To Mom: thank you for being an extraordinary woman, exemplifying curiosity, compassion, and kindness coexisting beautifully with self-respect, self-love, and power. I love you beyond words.

I'm a Black girl from Tennessee who secured the title of vice president before age 30. How'd I do it? I worked hard. I got my NYU master's degree and earned Series 7 and Series 63 banking certifications.

But make no mistake: even with all my accomplishments, I learned that for people like me, a VP title is still considered a privilege, not a right.

Here's my story.

The postrecession job market in 2008 was challenging for marketing professionals. But after acing three interview rounds, I landed a role at a global banking firm.

After several months, the firm asked me to serve on their Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Roundtable. This was a responsibility on top of my day job, but it was worth it. It was an exclusive opportunity afforded to top talent leaders to influence the firm's D&I direction. We would be able to open doors for quality, prospective job candidates, as well as provide inclusion opportunities for existing professionals who had the desire and passion to become managing directors and C-suite members.

The prospect of this new role perked me up, especially considering the fact that I was seeing a lot of management turnover at my firm. In the short time I was with the company, I had four different immediate managers and two different managing directors. Still, I was being recognized. That made me feel valued as a person and secure in my prospects.

When I was about one year in, the person who hired me left. She had been a mentor and her departure left me with no one who knew my work well enough to advocate for me. A colleague ominously advised me that things would likely get tougher for our team.

What I didn't know at the time was that by “our team” she really meant “me.”

I asked for a meeting with the managing director to get a better feel for her and her expectations. This woman recounted how much my previous managing director liked me. “The cat's meow” was how she described her perception of me. At the same time, she made equivocal comments, like how she was disappointed not to have been present in my initial interviews. What did it matter? I was here, wasn't I?

It all felt a little off, but I figured I'd be fine. My internal clients and my D&I Roundtable colleagues spoke well of me, and my work spoke for itself.

Then, a few weeks later, I had lunch with a colleague. She said she expected to be gone soon. We weren't particularly close, but she was the only other Black woman in our division. I think this is why she confided in me.

“I'm having a hard time getting required sign-offs, budget, and even information I need to do my job,” she said. “I've been telling my old manager about this, just to gut check it with him. He agrees it sounds like something's going on, but he said his hands are tied.”