For non-native English speakers building executive presence, this conversation asks a question most leaders feel but rarely say out loud: what does it actually cost to spend years hiding your accent just to fit into the room?
Silke Meixner was born in Frankfurt, baptized in Kabul, and raised across Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Congo before her family settled in Germany. By the time she built her career at IBM and Deloitte, she'd learned to sound as proper as possible, toning down her accent and her international background at every turn.
We talk about the moment that changed her relationship with her own executive presence: a teammate's comment, "you were actually really fun," that revealed the extra-formal persona she'd built for consulting. From there, we get into the three-legged stool she uses to stay grounded in high-stakes meetings, cultural fluency as a leadership skill, why small talk works differently across cultures, how intonation alone can shift English from sounding confident to sounding aggressive, and the framework she calls cautious authenticity, knowing what to share at work and when.
This conversation is for you if you're a non-native English speaker who has ever wondered whether the polished, formal version of yourself is actually helping your credibility, or quietly working against it.
📌 In this episode:
0:00 Introduction
0:59 Meet Silke Meixner
1:44 Growing up across Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Congo, and Germany
2:46 Why her multicultural upbringing became a career asset
4:08 Owning her accent instead of hiding it
6:23 Building an "extra formal" persona in consulting
7:56 "You were actually really fun"
9:01 Why relaxing is received better than staying formal
10:16 How ease unlocks clearer thinking
11:25 Staying grounded as the only non-native speaker, only woman, only virtual attendee
12:03 The three-legged stool framework
14:49 Active listening and reading hidden agendas
16:45 Why small talk is relationship infrastructure
17:35 The ask-and-share formula for small talk
20:31 The "what?" intonation exercise
21:38 Male-dominated rooms and choosing what to conform to24:02 Sharing her passion for benevolent AI
27:35 Cautious authenticity, what's safe to share and when
29:20 Her rule: never ask about kids or a spouse unless mentioned
31:38 What she wishes more people asked her
33:19 "And, not or," integrating AI and ancient wisdom
35:02 Closing thoughts
📌 About Silke Meixner:
Silke Meixner is a Principal at ZS Consulting, where she leads customer-centric marketing and digital transformation work for global organizations. Born in Frankfurt and raised across Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Congo before settling in Germany for her high school years, she went on to study and work in the UK before building her career at IBM and Deloitte.
She now lives in Los Angeles, holds dual German and US citizenship, and travels internationally for her work in technology and innovation consulting. Alongside her corporate career, Silke is involved in initiatives promoting benevolent AI and describes herself as "a hippie in corporate clothing," integrating ancient wisdom traditions with her work in digital transformation.
📌 Follow Silke: LinkedIn (Silke Meixner) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/silkemeixner/
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