When Working Twice as Hard Isn’t Enough

by Celeste Warren

 For many of us who grew up in families of color, there was a phrase that seemed to follow us from childhood into adulthood:

“You have to work twice as hard to get half as far.” 

My parents raised me with that message. It wasn’t intended to discourage me. Quite the opposite. It was preparation. Their generation understood that the world would not always evaluate me solely on my talent, my effort, or my potential. So they wanted me to be ready.

Work harder. Be better prepared. Don’t give anyone a reason to question whether you belong. For many people, that message became an internal operating system.

We learned to arrive early and stay late. To prepare more. To make sure our work was beyond reproach. When an opportunity didn’t come, we often asked ourselves: What else do I need to do? How can I work harder?

But at some point, we need to ask a different question. 

What if the problem isn’t how hard people are working? What if we also need to examine the systems through which their hard work is being evaluated, recognized and rewarded? 

Organizations spend enormous amounts of time helping people become “better.” We offer leadership development, mentoring, coaching, training and career-development programs. Those things can be valuable.

But developing people without examining the systems around them can only take us so far.

Consider two talented employees who are equally capable and ambitious. One has a manager who regularly advocates for them in talent discussions, introduces them to senior leaders and gives them highly visible assignments. The other does excellent work but has a manager who believes employees should “prove themselves” before receiving those opportunities. Who is more likely to be seen as having leadership potential? 

The difference may have very little to do with how hard either employee is working. It may be access. 

That’s why equity requires us to look beyond individual effort and examine the systems, processes and practices that influence who gets opportunities.

For example, who is viewed as “high potential” and what criteria are we actually using to make that determination?

These decisions happen every day in organizations. Individually, they may seem small. Collectively, they shape careers.

The answer is not to lower expectations. It is not to guarantee outcomes. And it certainly is not to suggest that individual effort no longer matters.

Hard work, performance and accountability matter. But leaders also have a responsibility to make sure people are competing on a field where talent and performance have a fair and equitable opportunity to be recognized. 

That means moving beyond asking, “What does this employee need to do differently?” and instead asking, “What do we need to do differently?” 

Do these problems exist within your organization: a promotion process that relies too heavily on who is known by senior leadership or managers who have very different definitions of “leadership potential.” 

Many times, employees don't have access to influential advocates and are expected to somehow navigate the system on their own. These aren't individual deficiencies. They are organizational conditions. 

For generations, many parents prepared their children for inequitable systems by teaching them to work twice as hard. Organizational leaders have an opportunity to change that equation. 

Look at your talent processes. Examine how opportunities are distributed. Pay attention to who has access, who receives advocacy, and who consistently has to work harder simply to be seen. 

And when talented people aren't progressing, resist the instinct to immediately ask what is wrong with them. Ask what may be happening around them.

The goal of a fair and equitable organization isn't to promise everyone the same outcome. It’s to build systems where people have a fair and equitable opportunity to contribute, grow and succeed. 

Maybe the next generation shouldn't have to enter the workplace believing they must work twice as hard to get half as far. Maybe our responsibility as leaders is to build organizations where their hard work has a fair chance to take them as far as their talent can go.