PODCAST EPISODES

What does it take to achieve professional success? In Episode 14, the Season 1 Finale, Dr. Ella Bell Smith, Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and nationally recognized managerial consultant and expert on women’s workplace issues, joins to share pearls of wisdom about how Black women break concrete. She is the co-author of the widely acclaimed book, Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity. Dr. Bell’s scholarly work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Black Enterprise, and Essence, among many other media outlets. We chat about a range of topics critical to Black women’s professional success from engaging in difficult conversations with supervisors to preserving and showing your authentic Self at work, developing your professional identity, and building professional and personal relationships that support your career aspirations. 

Topics Covered: 

• Push back she faced within academia for her research on Black women
• Challenges of tokenism
• Responding to microaggressions at work
• How to have difficult conversations about race and gender with supervisors 
• Dr. Bell’s formula for professional advancement
• Preserving and bringing your authentic Self to work
• The concept of the concrete wall and Black women’s experience breaking through 
• Strategizing when and how to make your exit 
• Changes in your relationships as you climb the corporate ladder
• Finding love, a life partner, and balance

Highlights:

• “You need to be connected. Nobody climbs the corporate ladder alone. Do not think you can do this alone.”
• “Don’t expect everybody to like you.” 
• “You need to know who you are. Knowing who you are allows you to bring your true Self to the table. Authenticity is important. Walking into your best Self and the Self that can be powerful, that can be graceful is important. You need to know who you are to do that.” 
• “Don’t be afraid to show your gift. Yes, you have to have the relationship. Yes, you have to do the work. But people need to know who you are. They can’t support half of you.”

Connect with Dr. Bell: 

On her LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-bell-aa486419/

Over E-mail: ella.l.bell@tuck.dartmouth.edu

Other References:

• Ann Morrison, Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach the Top of America’s Largest Corporations?

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it! Leave a review and rating on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify. Reviews and ratings are really important to the ranking of the show. And feel free to send feedback and questions to breakconcrete@gmail.com.