From Friction to Foundation: What Marcello Hernández Teaches Us About Executive Credibility
Watching Marcello Hernández’s Netflix special, American Boy, through an executive lens, one idea stands out with unusual clarity: What once made him "harder to place" is precisely what now makes him a powerful representative of his community.
This is not an accident of charisma, nor is it confidence alone. It is identity integration, executed with intention.
For senior leaders, this distinction matters more than ever. In high-stakes roles, effectiveness is no longer driven by technical competence alone. It is shaped by identity clarity: how deeply a leader understands who they are, how coherently they express it, and how credibly they represent others through it.
What Hernández models is a truth many executives struggle to internalize: The parts of your identity that once felt like friction can become your greatest source of trust and influence, when they are owned rather than managed.
As a Cuban-Ukrainian woman whose career has moved from academia to executive education, I have navigated this shift firsthand. I’ve learned that reclaiming identity is not a liability; it is a strategic asset. Before the personal, however, the science is instructive.
The Science of Identity and Impact
Research across psychology and organizational behavior suggests that identity clarity is not a "soft trait", it is a performance amplifier. When leaders stop "code-switching" or suppressing their backgrounds, several shifts occur:
Increased Cognitive Capacity: Constant self-monitoring (managing how others perceive you) consumes significant cognitive resources. Identity alignment reduces this "tax," freeing up capacity for strategic thinking.
The Trust Gap: Research shows that warmth and authenticity drive trust more effectively than competence alone. Leaders who suppress parts of themselves are often perceived as less credible, even when they are highly capable.
Narrative Sovereignty: Proactively defining one's own narrative reduces stereotype threat. Silence reinforces external assumptions; voice disrupts them.
Legitimacy and Followership: Leaders gain influence when they are perceived as legitimate representatives of a group. "Owning" one’s identity signals belonging rather than distance, which measurably improves team engagement and resilience.
Ultimately, the data is unequivocal: People perform better when they aren't expending energy hiding who they are. While DEI initiatives may face political headwinds, many organizations are doubling down on belonging for this very reason. It is a bottom-line imperative.
From Constraint to Credibility
What Hernández does so effectively is refuse to treat his background as something to overcome. He treats it as a foundation to stand on.
This shift is subtle but profound. Leaders who frame their identity as a burden unconsciously signal an apology. Leaders who frame it as a source of perspective signal authority. When you communicate, "This is where I come from, and it is precisely why you can trust how I see the world," you move from seeking acceptance to commanding respect.
This isn’t about oversharing. It is about being grounded. When your history, your leadership style, and your values reinforce one another, others experience you as a "stable" leader. And grounded leaders are easier to follow.
A Personal Pivot: From "Fitting In" to "Representing"
As a Ukrainian-Cuban woman who moved from the rigours of academia to the high-stakes world of executive education, this theme is not theoretical. It’s lived.
Early in my career, the advice I received was consistent and clear: Neutralize. I was told to polish away my cultural references, soften my language, and downplay how a Ukrainian-Cuban upbringing shaped my views on power, conflict, and trust. The implicit message was that leadership had a specific "look", a narrow prototype, and my proximity to power depended on how well I could mimic it.
What I have learned is that the opposite is true. My ability to navigate complexity, read a room, and understand relational dynamics isn't separate from my heritage; it is inseparable from it. The very things that once made me "hard to categorize" are now the source of my credibility. They allow me to stand in multiple worlds at once.
For years, I kept my personal history, especially the challenges, behind a professional wall. But when I began leading executive classrooms, I took a risk. I started sharing my experiences, selectively and intentionally. I expected a loss of "professionalism"; instead, I found a deeper connection. I wasn't just reaching people with similar backgrounds; I was reaching leaders of all kinds who had survived their own adversities and forged resilience in the process.
That shift was freeing. There was a part of me I could finally stop hiding.
However, it’s important to name this: it didn’t happen because I suddenly found a surge of confidence. It happened because I made a deliberate choice to build a professional container where I had sovereignty over my voice. I reached a point where I was no longer willing to choose between being strategic and being myself.
For many leaders from underrepresented backgrounds, this is the real evolution: moving from the exhaustion of asking "How do I fit?" to the power of deciding "How do I represent?"
The Executive Takeaway
Leadership today is inherently representational. Whether you intend it or not, you are modeling what success looks like and who is allowed to achieve it.
The question is not whether your identity shows up, it always does. The question is whether you are leading from it deliberately or defensively.
Reflective Questions for the Week:
Risk vs. Clarity: Where am I still "managing" my identity to reduce risk rather than "owning" it to increase clarity?
The Missing Perspective: What unique lens does my background provide that is currently missing from my leadership because I haven't named it?
Signal Strength: What signals am I sending to my organization about who "belongs" in the C-suite based on how I show up?
Creating Space: What professional boundaries or "containers" do I need to establish to ensure I have sovereignty over my voice and direct access to power?
Impact: If I stood more firmly on my experience, how might it change the way others show up, speak up, or lead around me?
What once held you down may be the very thing that allows others to see themselves in leadership through you. That isn't just personal growth, that is executive impact.
Further Reading
Ibarra, H. (2015). The authenticity paradox. Harvard Business Review, 93(1/2), 52–59.
Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., & Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth and competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(2), 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.005
Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., & Platow, M. J. (2020). The new psychology of leadership: Identity, influence and power (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (1989). Motivation and cognitive abilities: An individual/differences–resource allocation approach to job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(4), 657–690. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.657
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797
Steffens, N. K., Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., Platow, M. J., Fransen, K., Yang, J., ... & Peters, K. (2014). Leadership as social identity management: Introducing the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) to assess and improve leadership effectiveness. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(5), 1001–1018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.05.002
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students. Science, 331(6023), 1447–1451. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1198364
