You Don’t Have to Be More of Them. You Just Have to Be More YOU.
- Jun 16
- 1 min read
By Andrea De Jager-Jackson, Founder, Speaker & Women’s Executive Coach
From the boardroom to personal heartbreak, Andrea De Jager-Jackson shares how reclaiming her voice became the most powerful leadership move of all.
There’s a moment in every woman’s journey when she realizes that staying silent costs more than speaking up. Mine came in the boardroom.
We were deep in conversation about business challenges. Ones, I believed, called for resilience, focus, and empathy. But before I could fully explain, the CEO cut in: “You need to be more like dad right now, and less like mom.”
That moment could have shut me down. I was fuming inside. It could have been one more instance of internalizing the messages I had heard before. Similar to what so many women hear: that empathy doesn’t belong in leadership, that to rise, we must be like others who had made it before us. Out-dated stereo-types of what great leadership “should” look like. That we need to shed our own voice.
But instead, I met it with curiosity.
“What does being more like dad look like to you?” I asked.
The group’s responses varied, contradicting each other. That was the insight. There’s no single definition of strength and how it shows up, and no one way to lead. What I knew in that moment, and have carried with me ever since is this: I am most impactful when I lead as me. Not a version shaped by outdated expectations or gendered assumptions, but a version grounded in alignment with my values, empathy, and clarity.
Connect With Andrea
Coming soon: www.andreadejagerjackson.com (Check back in summer 2025!)
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