Visibility Economy: The hidden cost of unpaid leadership

There is a moment in leadership that many accomplished women do not immediately recognise.

It is not burnout.

It is not a crisis.

It is not when things fall apart.

It is the moment when everything is still working but no longer stretching you.

You are competent.

You are respected.

You are visible.

And yet, beneath the applause and invitations, a quieter question begins to form:

What is all this actually building towards?

Over the past year, I have had repeated conversations with senior women across corporate institutions, professional services firms, public sector leadership, and founder-led businesses. Different industries. Different geographies. The same undertone.

They are visible, but not necessarily advancing in proportion to that visibility.

This is where the conversation must become more honest.

Visibility has never been an ego issue.

It has always been an economic one.

The visibility economy

Visibility is often presented to women as an unqualified good. As progress in itself. Especially in environments where representation has historically been limited.

But visibility without value is not neutral.

It is extractive.

I see this most clearly every year around International Women’s Day.

Large organisations host beautifully branded events. Significant budgets are allocated for venues, production, décor, entertainment, media coverage, and guest experience. These events are often framed as empowerment initiatives, culture-building exercises, or celebrations of women’s leadership.

But they also serve very clear business objectives.

Brand positioning.

Client engagement.

Talent attraction and retention.

Internal and external signalling.

Business development.

None of this is wrong.

What becomes problematic is when women’s intellectual leadership is used to advance these commercial outcomes without a corresponding value exchange.

At that point, the imbalance is no longer ethical.

It is economical.

A line I no longer cross

I have experienced this pattern personally.

A major organisation invited me to speak at its flagship women’s event two years in a row. Both times, my response was the same. Not because I did not value the audience and not because I do not believe deeply in advancing women.

But because clarity matters at this stage of leadership.

Fifteen years ago, I would have said yes without hesitation. In fact, I did. I travelled. I gave my time freely. It was part of building, part of learning, part of contribution.

But seasons change.

And contribution without value exchange, when repeated, quietly teaches the market what to expect.

What matters to say clearly is this: this experience is not unique.

I hear the same story repeatedly from senior women across banking, telecommunications, law, consulting, and large public institutions. Women invited again and again to lend credibility, insight, judgement, and emotional labour — without any corresponding economic value.

This is not a misunderstanding.

It is a pattern.

Subtle training, long-term erosion

The issue is not a single unpaid invitation.

The issue is repetition.

Over time, repeated “high-visibility, no-budget” requests train the market to expect women’s leadership to be available, but not valued.

Visibility is offered in place of value.

And slowly, almost invisibly, negotiating power erodes.

Women become known but available but not retained.

Recognised, but not contracted.

Respected, but not invested in.

The most dangerous part is that many women do not realise this erosion is happening until years later — when they attempt to renegotiate, reposition, or step into a more powerful phase of leadership.

By then, expectations are already set.

A conversation that matters

Only last year, I spoke with a woman newly appointed to a very senior C-suite role. She called to invite me to be the keynote speaker at her organisation’s upcoming International Women’s Day event. She was excited, proud of her promotion, and eager to “inspire”, “empower”, and “impact” the women in her organisation.

I congratulated her warmly. I meant it.

Then I asked her a few questions.

What is the organisation’s real objective for the event?

Who are the women attending, and where are they coming from?

What outcome does the company actually want — for the business and for the women — after the applause fades?

Then I asked the question that still makes many rooms uncomfortable.

Does your organisation have a budget?

There was a pause.

And in that pause lived the real issue.

If the organisation were inviting Burna Boy or Davido, there would be a budget.

If it were inviting a European or American speaker, there would be a budget.

Why, then, is women’s intellectual leadership treated as optional? Negotiable? Charitable?

This is not about ego.

It is about economic maturity.

Pro Bono is not the same as free

I was clear with her.

I have a speaking fee. My team would share my speaking enquiry process.

I also have a limited pro bono and concessionary offering — for the right causes, at the right time. That offering is intentional, competitive, and usually fully allocated.

Commercial organisations are not charities.

If there is a marketing budget, an HR budget, or a DEI budget, there is a speaker budget.

Anything else is a choice.

And choices have consequences.

Intellectual Leadership Is Capital

Experience is an asset.

Insight is an asset.

Judgement, pattern recognition, and lived leadership are assets.

They are capital.

When women consistently offer this capital without structure or value exchange, they quietly subsidise institutions that already hold power.

This is why this conversation belongs at the centre of women’s leadership discourse.

It is not about retreating from visibility.

It is about designing it.

The collective responsibility

This does not change unless senior women change what we normalise.

Representation alone is not leadership.

Presence alone is not power.

As women rise into positions of authority, especially across Africa, leadership is tested not only by how we show up — but by what we accept, what we reinforce, and what we refuse to subsidise.

Different stages require different economics.

Different women will make different choices.

But let us stop pretending those choices are neutral.

Final Word

We cannot build women’s wealth, power, and leadership on unpaid labour and polite silence.

We cannot keep telling women to “know their worth” while punishing them for acting on it.

And we cannot expect institutions to change if senior women do not lead that change from the inside.

Visibility is not the reward.

Value is.

And leadership begins with what you choose to normalise.

With intention,

Udo Okonjo; Founder, Radiant Collective Capital. Executive Chair, Fine & Country West Africa; Women, Wealth & Power Columnist, BusinessDay.