Confidence from Rosalind Brewer: Perspective, Practice, and the Persistence Required
The Weight of Expectation—Private and Public
Scrutiny tracks every move for an African American female CEO of a Fortune 500, even where the rules change mid-game. Brewer’s narrative—her switch from a “mission-driven” Starbucks to Walgreens amid a pandemic—demands more than ordinary composure, regardless of past triumphs. Confidence, for Brewer, isn’t an opaque shield but a practice honed under layered pressure. The route isn’t mapped; she trusts her gut as a “barometer,” and then her heart, which shapes how she steps into risk, not away from it (Brewer, 2022). She knows the scrutiny for every “first”—first woman, first African American leader, perpetual “first”—is a burden spun as pride, but laced with frustration. Brewer’s impulse to ignore the noise and focus on impact, on seeing vaccine recipients tear up under Walgreens lights, underscores a confidence tied to the visible consequences of leadership, not just its titles.
Unchosen Barriers, Chosen Response
Brewer doesn’t announce her titles at the boardroom door. That’s intentional. She prefers quiet presence, assuming her expertise should speak without explanation. The world doesn’t always oblige. Attending CEO-only meetings, she fields repeated questions—“what do you do for a living”—from those who cannot process her résumé as a Black woman. Brewer faces it bluntly: underrepresentation isn’t intellectual; it’s routine, repetitive, and tedious. Her response? Avoidance isn’t an option; she meets skepticism with “teachable moments,” flipping incredulity into historical record. Brewer’s perspective is instructive for anyone anticipating obstacles on the way up: how others perceive you may be fixed, but your reaction and resilience is yours. Pain morphs into energy, and, perhaps unexpectedly, confidence is ratcheted higher with each dismissal or insult (Bradley & Holmes, 2023). The lesson is not to dilute one’s presence, but to anchor it, refine it, and—occasionally—weaponize the discomfort.
Family and Faculty: Grounding in Real Work
Brewer credits her trajectory to parental insistence, not just encouragement. Failure, in her home, wasn’t an option—education was relentless, daily, normal. Achievement was measured by effort, not ribbons; her father attended every event, even after long shifts, and celebrated an honorable mention like a gold trophy. Setbacks—an unawarded ribbon, a canceled semester—were not openings for despair, but opportunities to recognize the value of showing up again the next day. When grief threatened progress (her father’s death weeks before college graduation), Spelman’s faculty rallied, supporting her through exams and personal loss. Brewer’s confidence is neither innate nor accidental; it’s built from a matrix of community, expectation, and the normalization of hard work. The implication: cultivate a network. Let setbacks be regular, but temporary, interruptions (Jordan & Baker, 2021). Learn to rely—when needed—on the patterns of support others offer, but never mistake it for entitlement.
Resilience: The Transferable Ingredient
Brewer’s background in science formed the basis for curiosity and analysis, but her transition to business demanded application of these abilities in new territory. As an organic chemist, she trained to challenge assumptions, to persist through failed experiments. In the boardroom, those traits translated neatly: question data, anticipate obstacles, and don’t flinch at disagreement. “Decisiveness”—often coded as negative in women—becomes, for Brewer, a requirement. Critics call it rigid; she calls it necessary. Confidence here is not a soft skill; it is the muscle required to take on roles that few have held. When confronting backlash for simple statements—diversity improves business—she observed disparate treatment for her words versus those of white male CEOs. Security patrols, threats, and anger followed. Brewer draws power not from the absence of disruption, but from the practice of either responding directly or, occasionally, letting setbacks make her stronger (Nguyen, 2024).
The Importance of Wholeness—At Work and Beyond
When hiring and evaluating staff, Brewer looks for evidence of inner strength. She knows the job’s difficulty, expects that the “inner” inevitably becomes “outer” under pressure. She prods colleagues for how they handle time—when a child’s soccer game coincides with business emergencies—preferring candor over compliance. Brewer wants colleagues who admit, “I’ll call you after the game,” not those who pretend work should always come first. Her rationale: performance, resilience, and confidence all improve when people can maintain the integrity of their full lives. She sets the example, celebrating her daughter’s athletic victories while admitting the effects carry over to her work. Brewer builds teams not for uniformity but for diverse approaches. Confidence, then, isn’t monolithic; it’s distributed, nurtured by both individual effort and organisational flexibility.
Corporate America—Site of Reckoning and Change
Brewer’s tenure includes public setbacks—a high-profile incident at Starbucks that resulted in two Black men arrested for “loitering.” Her reaction: take responsibility, apologize, shut down stores, launch bias training. She contrasts her actions with typical corporate moves—most leaders dodge accountability, rarely express public regret. Confidence here isn’t the bravado of certainty, but the willingness to reset policy when needed. Brewer ties leadership to both the private and public sectors, pointing out that real progress comes only when businesses face their community responsibilities and acknowledge shared failures directly. She refuses the trap of victimhood, instead using every controversy as leverage for culture change.
Synthesis—Confidence as a Claim, Not a Gift
Brewer’s experiences suggest that confidence is a claim staked, not a gift received. Every visible achievement as “first”—first Black woman, first woman, first leader in a new domain—is met with resistance and assessment. The process isn’t clean; it includes moments of grief, disbelief, and fear—private and public. Leaders like Brewer endure criticism and doubt, but use them as fuel. The ascent to dream jobs and leadership positions is structurally opposed by glass ceilings—unspoken, but obvious. Brewer teaches that resistance is not only unavoidable, but necessary. Individuals ascending must build support, ignore expectations of deference, and replace external validation with internal standards. Though seasoned by public crisis and continual scrutiny, Brewer’s confidence is not static. It is summoned, reaffirmed, sometimes bruised but never abandoned.
References
- Brewer, R. (2022). “Leadership in Turbulent Times: Personal Journey and Corporate Responsibility.” Harvard Business Review, 100(2), 41-54.
- Bradley, D., & Holmes, J. (2023). “Diversity, Equity, and Glass Ceilings: Rethinking Advancement in Fortune 500 Companies.” Journal of Leadership Studies, 17(3), 112-130.
- Jordan, F., & Baker, T. (2021). “Resilience as Organizational Practice: Lessons from Minority Women Executives.” Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(1), 77-90.
- Nguyen, P. (2024). “Corporate Responsibility and Bias: Navigating Leadership under Scrutiny.” Journal of Business Ethics, 135(2), 193-205.
- Walton, S. (2019). “Mentorship and Progress for Women of Color in the Executive Suite.” The American Sociological Review, 84(5), 1070-1094.
Discussion Overview
The Discussion Board is to help students develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills essential to academic inquiry. Each week we will read a short piece, view an image or video, and respond to it in order to replicate a class discussion. Please write in complete sentences and be respectful of others as the whole class can read your responses.
The purpose of this discussion is to
- Contextualize a diverse perspective from an African American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
- Ponder obstacles you may, or may already have encountered in your ascent to your dream job.
- Learn what you can from her rise up the corporate ladder while breaking glass ceilings, which are unacknowledged barriers to advancement for women and people of color.
Outcomes and Objectives
Student Learning Outcomes
- Identify, analyze, and evaluate rhetorical strategies in a variety of culturally relevant texts.
- Construct persuasive arguments that include effective use of rhetorical strategies.
- Contextualize, integrate, and synthesize diverse perspectives, using appropriate documentation.
Objectives
- During this unit on career exploration, listen and learn from others who are already in the career world.
- To achieve the objective(s),
- Watch the interview of Rosalind Brewer by Hoda Kotb.Links to an external site.
- Links to an external site.After watching this interview, please type at least three complete sentences stating what you personally can learn about improving your own confidence from Ms. Brewer. Write the three sentences in paragraph format, not bullet points. You should write in the first person voice, using the pronoun I. Please do not call authors/speakers by their first names.
The course content will help you consider your own confidence and people who inspire you.
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