Leading Light: Why the 'Technicolor Leader' is the Future of the C-Suite in Asia
Moving Beyond the 'Expertise Trap' to Master the Art of Modulated Authenticity.
The Trap of the "Monochrome Expert"
Imagine a boardroom in Marunouchi or a regional HQ in Singapore. The air is cool, the lighting is stark, and Akiko is speaking.
Akiko (a composite of many women I coach) is the newly appointed Head of Legal and Compliance for a major Japanese corporation. She is impeccable. Her logic is bulletproof, her risk assessment is surgically precise, and her demeanor is a study in "professional restraint." She has spent twenty years cultivating this persona. In a male-dominated hierarchy, she learned early that "warmth" was often mistaken for weakness, and "bubbly" was a synonym for "lightweight."
So, she edited it out. She became a machine of competence.
Or consider Mei, a deep regulatory expert who has just been promoted to a Regional C-level role. Mei built her career on being the smartest person in the room. She rose through the ranks by ensuring zero defects, memorizing every statute, and "over-delivering" on every technical request. She is a laser beam—intense, focused, and searingly bright.
Both women have broken the glass ceiling. But now that they are sitting in the C-Suite, they are discovering a terrifying silence.
When Akiko finishes her presentation, the board nods respectfully, but no one is inspired. When Mei enters the regional office, the team straightens up in fear rather than leaning in with trust. They are respected, yes. But they are not felt.
This is the "Expertise Trap."
For decades, the currency of your career was Accuracy. You succeeded by being the "Monochrome Expert"—operating in the safe, high-contrast world of black and white, Right vs. Wrong, Compliant vs. Risky. You learned to suppress your personality to project gravitas. You treated your "authentic self"—the part of you that laughs, empathizes, and connects—as a liability to be managed, if not hidden entirely.
But here is the brutal truth about the transition from "Subject Matter Expert" to "Leader-in-Chief": The skills that got you here are not the skills that will keep you here.
In the C-Suite, accuracy is merely table stakes. The new currency is Impact.
Your team doesn't just need to know the regulatory landscape; they need to feel safe enough to innovate within it. Your board doesn't just need a legal opinion; they need a vision they can believe in. By continuing to "edit out" your humanity—by keeping your leadership in "Greyscale"—you are withholding the very asset that allows you to scale your influence.
You have spent your career becoming a laser beam of expertise. But a laser only illuminates a single point. To lead a region, to steer a global division, to truly elevate those around you, you cannot just be a laser. You must become a Leading Light.
And to do that, we need to talk about color. It is time to stop suppressing the vibrant, "technicolor" parts of your personality and start strategically deploying them. It is time to master the art of Modulated Authenticity.
Rethinking Authenticity – The Strategic "Edit"
I can almost hear the resistance forming in your mind.
When I suggest that a serious regulatory expert needs to become "bubbly," or that a stoic General Counsel needs to project "warmth," the immediate internal reaction is often recoil. “That sounds fake,” you might think. “I worked hard to be taken seriously. I am not going to put on a performance just to please people. I want to be authentic.”
This instinct is honorable. But it is also based on a misunderstanding of what leadership actually requires.
We live in an era that worships "Authenticity." We are told to "bring our whole selves to work" and to "just be yourself." But organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, in his provocative work Don’t Be Yourself, argues that this is terrible advice for leaders—especially for those ascending to the highest levels.
If "being yourself" means acting on your raw impulses—showing your exhaustion when you are tired, your boredom when a junior colleague is struggling, or your anxiety during a crisis—then "being yourself" is an act of selfishness. It prioritizes your internal state over your team’s psychological safety.
Chamorro-Premuzic offers a crucial distinction that is vital for the female SME to understand: the difference between Identity and Reputation.
● Identity is how you see yourself (your internal truth, your intent).
● Reputation is how others see you (your external impact, your signal).
For the Subject Matter Expert, Identity has always been king. You define yourself by your knowledge, your integrity, and your hard work. You assume that if your intent is good and your work is perfect, your Reputation will take care of itself.
But in leadership, Reputation is the only reality that matters. It doesn't matter if you are a warm, caring person on the inside (Identity); if your team perceives you as cold, distant, or intimidating (Reputation), then you are a cold leader. The gap between your intent and their perception is a leadership failure.
This is where the concept of "The Edit" comes in.
Editing yourself is not about lying. It is not about becoming a fake corporate cheerleader. Editing is an act of empathy. It is the discipline of filtering your raw impulses to ensure that what lands on the other person is helpful, clear, and motivating.
Think of your personality like a high-complexity software program. As an expert, your internal code is dense, sophisticated, and perhaps a bit overwhelming. If you expose your team to the "raw code" (your unfiltered thoughts, stressors, and complexity), they will crash.
Leadership is the act of building a User Interface (UI) for that code.
When you choose to smile when you are stressed, you are designing a UI that says, "It’s going to be okay." When you choose to be talkative and "bubbly" at a town hall despite being naturally introverted, you are designing a UI that says, "I am accessible, and I see you."
This is not deception; it is service.
For the female leader in a male-dominated industry, this "Edit" is often confused with the "masking" or "assimilation" you did early in your career to survive. But there is a critical difference:
● Assimilation is suppressing your difference to fit in (Moving from Color to Grey).
● Strategic Editing is curating your best traits to stand out (Moving from Grey to Technicolor).
Chamorro-Premuzic notes that the skills required to get the job (Emergence) are different from the skills required to do the job (Effectiveness). You emerged because you were smart. You will be effective because you are "low friction" and "high impact."
So, stop worrying about whether being "bubbly" or "warm" is "you." If it is the tool that unlocks your team’s potential, then it is the tool you must pick up. You are the musician; your personality is just the instrument. A virtuoso doesn't just play the notes they feel like playing; they play the notes the music demands.
It is time to stop viewing your personality as a fixed statue that must be protected, and start viewing it as a dynamic interface that must be designed.
Introducing the "Technicolor Leader-in-Chief"
If the "Monochrome Expert" operates in the safe, crisp, black-and-white world of facts and logic, what does the next level define itself by?
It is defined by saturation.
The leader who transcends her expertise and truly electrifies an organization isn't just brighter; she is broader. She broadcasts on frequencies that others miss. She refuses to limit her communication to the greyscale channel of corporate stoicism.
She is the Technicolor Leader-in-Chief.
This leader understands that humans do not follow data; they follow energy. While black-and-white conveys information, color conveys feeling. And in the C-Suite, your primary job is the management of feeling—inspiration, trust, urgency, and psychological safety.
The mistake many high-achieving women make—particularly in hierarchical cultures like Japan’s—is assuming that to be "professional" means to de-saturate their personality to a neutral grey. They fear that showing too much color will make them seem less serious.
The Technicolor Leader flips this script. She recognizes that her vibrant, "human" traits—the very ones she spent twenty years editing out to be taken seriously by male superiors—are now her most potent competitive advantage.
Let us open the Technicolor palette and look at three primary colors that the Female SME often suppresses, but which are essential for C-level impact.
1. The Yellow: Radical Optimism and Warmth (The "Bubbly" Factor)
In the serious world of regulation, finance, or engineering, "bubbly" is a dirty word. It is dismissed as "girly," lightweight, or un-executive.
But what is "bubbly" in practice? It is visible energy. It is the smile that breaks the tension in a high-stakes negotiation. It is the infectious enthusiasm for a new vision that makes a cynical team believe it’s possible.
The Technicolor Leader does not apologize for her yellow. She knows that anxiety is contagious, but so is optimism. In a crisis, her team doesn't need another person furrowing their brow in greyscale worry; they need a flash of yellow—a leader who projects the physiological signal that "we’ve got this." This isn't naïveté; it's a strategic injection of hope.
2. The Red: Passion and Visible Urgency
The Monochrome Expert fears being labeled "emotional." So, she flattens her affect. When she is frustrated by a lack of progress or passionate about a new initiative, she delivers it with the same cool, detached tone as a compliance report.
This is a failure of signal transmission.
The Technicolor Leader uses Red strategically. She knows that to drive change, people need to feel the stakes. When she is frustrated with mediocrity, she lets a controlled flash of red show in her voice. When she is evangelical about a new market, she lets her passion burn brightly. She doesn't explode (that’s a lack of editing); she ignites. She uses red to signal, "Pay attention, this matters."
3. The Blue: Deep Empathy and Vulnerability
This is perhaps the hardest color for the battle-hardened female executive to re-introduce. Blue is the color of connection. It is the act of lowering the "bulletproof" shield to let others in.
The Monochrome Expert views vulnerability as a crack in the armor. The Technicolor Leader views it as a bridge. She uses Blue—listening deeply without an agenda, admitting when she doesn’t know the answer, sharing a personal struggle—to create psychological safety. She knows that people will only take big risks for a leader they trust, and they only trust a leader who is human enough to bleed a little blue.
The Power of the Full Spectrum
The magic of the Technicolor Leader isn't just that she uses these colors; it’s that she possesses the full spectrum. She isn't just the bubbly cheerleader (Yellow), nor is she just the intense driver (Red). She is a complex, multi-dimensional human being.
By refusing to be monochrome, she gives permission to her entire organization to bring their full selves to work. She doesn't just light the room; she paints it, creating an environment that is richer, more resilient, and vastly more productive than the grey worlds of her predecessors.
The Art of Modulation – Leading in High-Context Cultures
Now comes the critical question: How do you do this without getting fired?
In the West, "authenticity" often implies a raw, unfiltered expression. But here in Asia—and particularly in the high-context business culture of Japan—we know that "letting it all hang out" violates the social harmony (wa). The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
So, how does the Technicolor Leader operate in a culture that prizes conformity?
She does not just blast color at maximum volume. She masters the Art of Modulation.
Think of your leadership presence not as a simple On/Off switch (Professional vs. Personal), but as a high-end mixing board or a color grading dial. You possess the full range of colors, but you consciously decide the saturation level based on the context.
This is the ultimate form of Chamorro-Premuzic’s "Strategic Edit." It is the ability to read the air (kuuki wo yomu), and then decide exactly which color will cut through that air effectively.
Breaking the "Tatemae" Wall
In Japan, we live between Tatemae (the public facade/obligation) and Honne (the true sound/feeling).
The Monochrome Expert stays permanently in Tatemae. She is safe, polite, and impenetrable. But in the C-Suite, staying in Tatemae is a death sentence for trust. If your team only sees the mask, they will never give you their Honne—the innovative ideas, the bad news you need to hear, or their true loyalty.
The Technicolor Leader uses her "colors" as a strategic tool to bridge this gap. She modulates her warmth (Yellow) or her vulnerability (Blue) to signal: "I am lowering my mask so you can lower yours."
Here is what this modulation looks like in practice across three common C-Suite scenarios:
-
● The Context: You are presenting to a conservative, male-dominated board. They value data and stability.
● The Modulation: You dial down the saturation. You rely heavily on your "Monochrome" foundation—data, logic, precision.
● The Technicolor Twist: If you stay 100% monochrome, you are just a reporter. The Technicolor Leader adds a single, concentrated streak of Red (conviction). You don't just report the data; you state your belief in the strategy with visible intensity. You edit out the "bubbly," but you amplify the "bold." You are not there to be liked; you are there to be respected.
-
● The Context: The team is tired, anxious, or cynical. They are looking for a reason to believe.
● The Modulation: This is where you turn the dial way up. A grey, stoic speech here will flatline the room.
● The Technicolor Twist: You deploy Yellow (Optimism) and Blue (Empathy). You smile more than feels natural. You modulate your voice to be warmer and more energetic. You might say, "I know everyone is exhausted, and I feel it too" (Blue), followed by, "But here is why I am incredibly excited about where we are going" (Yellow). You are acting as the organization’s emotional thermostat, raising the temperature of the room.
-
● The Context: A high-potential female manager is struggling with imposter syndrome.
● The Modulation: You drop the "Expert" persona entirely.
● The Technicolor Twist: You use soft Blue. You share a story of your own failure. You laugh at yourself. You let yourself be "bubbly" and accessible. If you remain the "Perfect Expert" here, you intimidate her. By modulating to "Imperfect Human," you inspire her.
The "User Error" Check
The key to modulation is realizing that you are not the audience.
The Monochrome Expert asks: "Does this behavior feel comfortable to me?"
The Technicolor Leader asks: "What color does this room need right now?"
If the room is chaotic, they may need your "Cool Grey" stability. If the room is frozen in fear, they need your "Warm Yellow."
This is not about being fake. It is about being versatile. It is about understanding that your "Authenticity" is a vast spectrum, and your job as a leader is to choose the frequency that will result in the highest impact. You are not changing who you are; you are simply adjusting how you are received.
The "Edit" Audit – A Diagnostic for the Female Executive
Before you close this tab and return to the safety of your inbox, I want to invite you to pause.
You have spent years, perhaps decades, perfecting your "Monochrome Edit." You have polished your expertise until it shines. But as we have established, what got you to the Regional Head role will not get you to the true "Leader-in-Chief" impact.
How do you know if you are stuck in the "Expertise Trap"? Ask yourself these three questions. Be honest—this is for your eyes only.
1. The "Politeness" Trap
● Ask yourself: "Do I prioritize being 'correct' and 'composed' over being 'felt'?"
● The Diagnostic: If you walk out of a meeting and everyone agrees with your logic, but no one is smiling, energized, or debating with passion, you have failed the Technicolor test. You provided data, but you didn't provide fuel. You are stuck in Greyscale.
2. The "Accuracy" Shield
● Ask yourself: "Do I use my expertise as a shield to avoid the risk of connection?"
● The Diagnostic: Many of us hide behind our facts because facts can’t be criticized. Personality can be. If you find yourself retreating into the details when the conversation requires vision or empathy, you are over-editing. You are protecting your Identity (I am smart) at the expense of your Reputation (I am a leader).
3. The "Weakness" Fallacy
● Ask yourself: "Do I still believe that showing warmth, humor, or doubt makes me look 'unprofessional'?"
● The Diagnostic: Look at the leaders you admire most. Are they robots? Or are they vibrant, three-dimensional humans? If you are suppressing your "Yellow" (bubbly optimism) or your "Blue" (vulnerability) because you think it diminishes your authority, realize this: In the AI era, 'robot' is the commodity. 'Human' is the luxury good.
Your Challenge: The 10% Modulation
You do not need to become a game show host overnight. Start small. For the next week, try a 10% Modulation.
● In one meeting, dial up your "Yellow" by 10%. Smile more than feels necessary.
● In one crisis, dial up your "Red." Show your passion.
● In one mentorship session, dial up your "Blue." Admit a mistake.
Observe the results. You will likely find that the roof does not cave in. Instead, you will see the lights go on in the eyes of your team.
Conclusion: Leading Light
The title of this conversation is Leading Light.
For a long time, we interpreted that phrase to mean "The Brightest Bulb in the Room." We thought it meant the person with the most blinding intellect, the sharpest facts, and the clearest vision.
But a laser beam, for all its power, is cold. It cuts, but it does not warm.
As you step into the C-Suite, your mandate changes. You are no longer just a source of illumination; you are a source of spectrum. Your job is to take the white light of the organization’s mission and refract it through the prism of your personality, splitting it into the colors that human beings need to thrive: the warmth of connection, the heat of urgency, the cool of empathy.
Do not let the conservative history of corporate leadership convince you that you must be grey to be great. That era is ending. The complex, volatile world of tomorrow demands leaders who are fully, visibly, and bravely human.
It is time to stop editing out the best parts of yourself. It is time to pick up the mixing board, find your frequency, and flood the room with color.
The future of leadership is not monochrome. It is Technicolor. And you are holding the brush.
About the Author
Karin Wellbrock is a Partner at Kay Group Tokyo and a champion for bringing "Technicolor Leadership" to the C-Suite. Named a Top 15 Coach in Tokyo (2024–2025), she empowers leaders to move beyond pure expertise and master the art of impactful presence. As a leadership coach and thinking partner, she helps executives modulate their authenticity to bridge cultures and create the kind of magnetic teams people genuinely want to be part of. Connect with Karin (karin.wellbrock@kaygroup-asia.com)
Reference
Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas. (2025). Don't Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated and What to Do Instead.