April 28, 2026
We had the pleasure of speaking with Ella Samson, author of The Power of Emergence: A Memoir to Demystify Gender Identity and Inspire Belonging in the Workplace
When Ella Samson sat down with PIOW to talk about her new memoir, we weren’t sure what to expect. What we got was one of the most grounded, disarming conversations we’ve had about gender identity in the workplace – not because it was simple, but because Ella has a rare gift for making the unfamiliar feel human. Her book isn’t an advocacy text. It isn’t written for people who already “get it.” It’s written for the leaders who don’t – and who want to.
We asked her six questions. Here’s what she said.
Why did you write this memoir – and why focus it on enterprise leaders rather than the LGBTQ+ community?
I’m deeply empathetic to how hard gender identity is to understand – because I didn’t understand transgender was real for most of my own life. I thought people were attention-seeking or confused. And I figured: if I didn’t understand this, most enterprise leaders don’t either.
I focused on enterprise leaders because it’s the world I know – thirty years in corporate America, fourteen of them as a VP at Deloitte. Leaders shape culture for thousands of people. If I can shift their understanding, the impact scales. And the business case is clear: by 2030, at least six million people in the U.S. workforce will be gender-diverse or transgender, and two-thirds of them don’t feel like they belong today.
Before-and-after images, 15-minute panel conversations, social media sound bites – none of that creates real understanding. Only the inside story does. That’s why I wrote a memoir.
You didn’t understand transgender was real for most of your own life. How did that shape how you wrote this book?
That disbelief is exactly why I’m credible with skeptical leaders – I was one of them. My starting point isn’t advocacy. I don’t ask readers to just trust that gender identity is real. I take them on the journey so they can understand it themselves.
The memoir is non-defensive and non-judgmental. I don’t assume bad intent in my reader. I assume curiosity, some uncertainty, and a genuine desire to understand. My disbelief wasn’t malicious – it came from a lack of understanding and positive representation. That’s exactly what most leaders bring to this topic.
I also want to be clear: I share only one story – my own. I don’t speak for a community. I wrote the book I needed to read thirty years ago.
You use the word ‘emergence’ rather than ‘transition.’ Why does that distinction matter?
‘Transition’ implies becoming something you’re not – moving from one thing to another. That’s fundamentally misleading. I was born female and I am still female. I didn’t go from one gender to another. I emerged. I stayed the same.
‘Emergence’ captures the truth: becoming visible as who you have always been. Nothing new is being created – something authentic is finally being seen.
Language shapes understanding, and understanding shapes empathy. When leaders understand emergence rather than transition, they stop seeing gender-diverse or transgender employees as people who changed – and start seeing people who are finally able to be themselves. That shift matters enormously.
You say that gender identity is something every person has, not just gender-diverse or transgender people. What do you mean by that?
Every human being has a gender identity. Most people have never had to think about theirs because they didn’t need to – there was no friction, no disconnect between who they are inside and how the world sees them. When your gender identity aligns with your birth-assigned sex, it’s invisible to you. Like breathing.
Think about it this way: if someone asked you to live as a different gender tomorrow – dress differently, use different pronouns, be perceived differently – you would feel it immediately. That discomfort is your gender identity making itself known.
When leaders realize they have a gender identity too, the conversation shifts from ‘understanding them’ to ‘understanding something we all share.’ That reframe removes the othering. It creates a bridge to empathy – and that’s one of the most powerful entry points in the memoir.
What are the hidden costs when employees feel uncertain about whether it’s safe to be fully themselves at work?
Two-thirds of gender-diverse and transgender employees don’t feel like they belong – that’s a massive belonging gap with direct business consequences. When employees are managing a secret or performing a version of themselves that isn’t authentic, the cognitive bandwidth that should go to their work goes to self-monitoring instead.
Gender-diverse talent actively avoids companies and industries they perceive as unsafe – limiting your talent pipeline before you’ve even posted the job. The retention cost is significant: replacing a senior employee costs 50–200% of their annual salary. And 15–17% of Gen Z identifies as gender-diverse or transgender. By 2030, Gen Z will be 35% of the workforce.
But the hidden cost is also cultural. When one group doesn’t feel safe, others notice. It signals to your entire workforce what belonging actually means in your organization – and that signal reaches far beyond the people directly affected.
Why did you choose storytelling rather than traditional training as your educational tool?
I don’t think any amount of training helps people understand gender identity. For those who’ve never had to think about it, it’s too foreign to connect with – to the point where you may not even recognize that you have a gender identity of your own. If you’ve never had to consider it, it might as well not exist. That’s why before-and-after pictures or simplified visuals or simply telling people to trust that it’s real don’t move the needle. This topic requires going deep on the inside. A training can’t do that.
Training delivers information. Stories create empathy. And empathy is what changes behavior – not information. Neuroscience supports this: stories activate different parts of the brain. They create emotional resonance, neural coupling – we literally sync up with the storyteller’s experience.
The memoir also allows leaders to build understanding privately, on their own time, without requiring gender-diverse employees to educate them – which is often an exhausting emotional labor burden, even when well-intentioned. Training is something that happens to you. A memoir is something you choose. Leaders who choose to read it are already bringing a different level of openness.
ABOUT ELLA SAMSON
Ella Samson is the author of The Power of Emergence and founder and CEO of Emerge Collaborations. With an MBA from the Wharton School and more than 30 years of cross-functional leadership experience, including 14 years as a VP at Deloitte Consulting, she delivers memoir-based fireside chats that help enterprise leaders and their teams understand gender identity and build genuine cultures of belonging.
The Power of Emergence is available now. Learn more here.