Undiplomatic : how my attitude created the best kind of trouble

Undiplomatic How my attitude created the best kind of trouble

Deesha Dyer

Book - 2024

"When Deesha Dyer applied for a White House internship, she was 31, a community college student and aspiring hip-hop journalist, working in an administrative role at a real estate company. When President Barack Obama was elected, she felt so inspired that she took a chance on herself despite having no political background or connections. Suddenly, she found herself in the White House at the epicenter of U.S. government. Her fellow interns were in their early 20s, went to Ivy League schools, and had previous political experience. But in spite of the little voice in her head telling her she didn't deserve to be there, Deesha thrived, accompanying President Obama on high-level trips, continuing to work for the administration full-tim...e after her internship ended, and ultimately rising to the key administration role of Social Secretary, for which she orchestrated everything from major diplomatic summits to functions with Beyonce and the Pope. Still, Imposter Syndrome appeared at every turn threatening her self-esteem and proven aptitude. Undiplomatic is a personal development book combining Deesha's personal story with hard-earned lessons on how she successfully combatted feelings of doubt while holding a top-level position. In this book, Deesha will share what she's learned along the way and reflect on how she changed her life by realizing that her imposter syndrome was neither her fault nor her responsibility. She will dive into how she learned to give herself the same grace she gives to others and offer her best wisdom about authenticity and curiosity, the myth of "being yourself", and the importance of understanding that what you have is what you've earned. Deesha is honest that nobody can "solve" imposter syndrome and never think of it again. But she invites you to walk beside her as she shows you what the journey of believing you belong really looks like, and the joy and freedom that await you on the other side"--

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Subjects
Dyer, Deesha.
United States. > White House Office > Officials and employees > Biography.
Impostor phenomenon.
Success.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Autobiographies
Published
New York : Legacy Lit 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Deesha Dyer (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
247 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781538741696
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. Hey, Imposter. Nice to Meet Ya?!
  • Chapter 2. Digging Up the Root
  • Chapter 3. College: As Seen on TV
  • Chapter 4. Movin' On Up
  • Chapter 5. Ascending: Becoming the White House Social Secretary
  • Chapter 6. The Steep Cost of Being Yourself
  • Chapter 7. Peace Be With You. And Also.
  • Chapter 8. The Debt You Don't Owe
  • Chapter 9. After the Fact…
  • Chapter 10. Survival Is Fluid
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Workaday politics meets interpersonal dynamics in this report from the White House trenches. In 2009, with a "résumé full of unexpected detours," and somewhat older than her peers, Dyer won an internship with the Obama administration. She excelled, so much so that she was invited to return as a full-time employee, eventually becoming social secretary. Six years in, she writes, she had moved from newbie to insider with a good amount of influence, with access to some very powerful people. In her account of her impressive ascent, there's a bit too much mundane background ("As I was applying for apartments…I found out that I had bad credit from defaulting on student loans and multiple unpaid credit cards") and some clunky bits ("I felt my cheeks smile at the thought that I'd just talked to the White House"). However, where Dyer's account gains traction is when she speaks to the larger issue of women--and particularly Black women--being undervalued, dismissed, and mansplained at every turn. Coupled with the author's suffering from imposter syndrome, which "will always show up on time for your accomplishments," this prompts a trenchant denunciation of a system that is a bastion of white privilege in which Dyer was forced to process endless microaggressions and prejudices. "Rarely were my conversations about the matter at hand," she writes; "instead they involved someone's feelings about me." She stuck it out, only to find that once she left the White House and was back on the job market, it was all back to square one: the assumptions of others and that impostor syndrome working at full speed, which leads her to a welcome closing bit of advice and demand for personal justice: "We have to show others how to treat us." A revealing look inside the executive branch and its entrenched culture. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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