Tanyika Mayhew Butler
Disruptor of High Functioning Survival Mode™ | Author | Speaker | Helping Leaders Win Without Burning Out Their Best People

 

Tanyika Mayhew Butler doesn’t just teach leadership, she’s lived it.

Before becoming a strategist, speaker, and creator of the Basketball in the Boardroom™ framework, Tanyika was a woman carrying responsibility from every direction: managing multiple leadership roles, raising two children, including an autistic daughter with high support needs, and quietly navigating a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In the same year she received a major professional award, she also received her diagnosis—publicly applauded for excellence while privately absorbing a life-altering reality.
For 27 years, Tanyika led inside complex education systems as a teacher, school counselor, and advisor to senior administrators. She worked in environments where results were non-negotiable, resources were limited, and the margin for error was slim. She learned early what many high performers discover too late: when you deliver consistently, you don’t get relief—you get more responsibility. And rarely permission to slow down.
After a medical crisis—triggered by pushing past her limits without the language to name what was happening—Tanyika recognized the cost of sustained, unexamined pressure. That moment became a turning point, shaping the work she leads today: helping organizations recalibrate rhythm before strain becomes collapse.
Tanyika specializes in identifying UGLY wins—when teams meet goals, hit targets, and appear successful, but at a hidden cost to people, clarity, and sustainability. Through her work, she helps leaders restore rhythm, clarify roles, and protect their strongest contributors—without restructuring, culture overhauls, or adding initiatives. Her approach strengthens what already exists so that performance can continue without quiet compensation or burnout.
Today, Tanyika brings both strategy and lived experience to school districts and executive teams, equipping leaders to recognize rhythm breakdowns early and reset how success is carried—so results endure.
She has been married for 27 years, is the parent of two adult children, and credits her grounded leadership to five life codes passed down by her late mother. Proof that quiet women often raise the strongest systems—and the strongest leaders.

 

Basketball in the Boardroom™

Recalibrating Leadership Rhythm Before Performance Fractures

Basketball in the Boardroom™ is not a motivational talk or a wellness initiative.
It is a leadership recalibration framework designed for organizations that are still performing well—but doing so at an increasing, hidden cost.

This work addresses what most leaders feel but can’t always name:
performance continues, yet rhythm is off.

 

The Process 

Basketball in the Boardroom™ recalibrates leadership rhythm in three deliberate moves:

1. Expose Rhythm Drift
We identify where roles, pace, and responsibility have quietly drifted—often revealed through UGLY wins: results achieved through strain, silent compensation, and overextension.

2. Re-Anchor Responsibility
Using the 5 Codes framework—beginning with Play Your Position—we clarify ownership, reset role discipline, and remove work that has migrated to the wrong people.

3. Restore Sustainable Rhythm
Leadership rhythm is re-established so performance continues without constant compensation, overcorrection, or burnout-driven heroics.

 

What Leaders Can Expect to Shift

Organizations that engage in this work typically experience:

 

-Fewer stress-driven errors and rework

-Stabilized retention among top performers

-Clearer ownership and faster decision-making

-Reduced silent compensation inside teams

-Sustained performance without escalating pressure

 

This is not about slowing teams down.
It’s about protecting performance, preserving institutional knowledge, and restoring rhythm before strain becomes loss.

Because sustainable excellence is not accidental.
It is architected.

Why Basketball in the Boardroom™ Works

Because teams run the pace leadership sets — even when that pace is unsustainable.

And ugly wins don’t expose weak teams.
They expose leadership systems that haven’t recalibrated.

Sustainable excellence is not accidental.
It is designed.

 

The Legacy Behind the Framework

After my mother’s passing, I discovered that what I believed I built from scratch was actually her legacy — a five-pillar life philosophy she modeled and lived. Her rules weren’t about basketball. They were about identity, boundaries, energy, community, and awareness — the exact pillars of functional renewal.
Her wisdom is now formalized through:

Learn more about Ms. JACKIE'S Playbook

 

Start Your Leadership Conversation

MEET THE DISRUPTOR

Tanyika Butler
Disruptor of Survival Mode™ | Author | Speaker | Resilience Architect

 

 

Basketball in the Boardroom™

Recalibrating Leadership Rhythm Before Performance Fractures

Basketball in the Boardroom™ is not a motivational talk or a wellness initiative.
It is a leadership recalibration framework designed for organizations that are still performing well—but doing so at an increasing, hidden cost.

This work addresses what most leaders feel but can’t always name:
performance continues, yet rhythm is off.

 

The Process 

Basketball in the Boardroom™ recalibrates leadership rhythm in three deliberate moves:

1. Expose Rhythm Drift
We identify where roles, pace, and responsibility have quietly drifted—often revealed through UGLY wins: results achieved through strain, silent compensation, and overextension.

2. Re-Anchor Responsibility
Using the 5 Codes framework—beginning with Play Your Position—we clarify ownership, reset role discipline, and remove work that has migrated to the wrong people.

3. Restore Sustainable Rhythm
Leadership rhythm is re-established so performance continues without constant compensation, overcorrection, or burnout-driven heroics.

 

What Leaders Can Expect to Shift

Organizations that engage in this work typically experience:

 

-Fewer stress-driven errors and rework

-Stabilized retention among top performers

-Clearer ownership and faster decision-making

-Reduced silent compensation inside teams

-Sustained performance without escalating pressure

 

This is not about slowing teams down.
It’s about protecting performance, preserving institutional knowledge, and restoring rhythm before strain becomes loss.

Because sustainable excellence is not accidental.
It is architected.

Why Basketball in the Boardroom™ Works

Because teams run the pace leadership sets — even when that pace is unsustainable.

And ugly wins don’t expose weak teams.
They expose leadership systems that haven’t recalibrated.

Sustainable excellence is not accidental.
It is designed.

 

The Legacy Behind the Framework

After my mother’s passing, I discovered that what I believed I built from scratch was actually her legacy — a five-pillar life philosophy she modeled and lived. Her rules weren’t about basketball. They were about identity, boundaries, energy, community, and awareness — the exact pillars of functional renewal.
Her wisdom is now formalized through:

Learn more about Ms. JACKIE'S Playbook

If you are interested in working with Tanyika.
Start Your Leadership Conversation

How Do You Carry an Award in One Hand and a Diagnosis in the Other?

 In 2009, I learned firsthand what happens when recognition and responsibility increase at the exact moment capacity is silently compromised.

That year, I was named Middle School Counselor of the Year—
and diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in the same season.

From the outside, everything looked right.
By 2013, I was leading initiatives, mentoring teams, and advocating relentlessly for my autistic daughter’s educational rights.

I was respected. Polished. Trusted.
And quietly depleted.

That December, a five-day hospital stay became a turning point—not because I was weak, but because my body had grown tired of sustaining performance without support.

In 2015, I received another honor—the Radiance Award—celebrating leadership, impact, and light.

What few people knew was this:
I was glowing in public while gasping in private.

I understood how to perform strength.
I had not yet learned how to stabilize peace.

That contrast—between visible success and invisible strain—became the blueprint for the work I do now.

Today, I help organizations and leaders recognize early strain while performance is still strong—and recalibrate roles, expectations, and rhythm before sustainability is lost.

Because true stability isn’t accidental.
It’s architected.

 

 How to Work with Tanyika One-on-One 

 

The No Matter What™ Applause Pivot Experience

Learn More About Working 1:1

 

For high-achieving women 45+ who have been praised for their strength, and are ready to stop paying for it privately.

This work isn’t about rest.
It’s about recalibration, rhythm, and longevity.

Private Strategy for Women 45+ Who Lead Hard and Refuse to Break Behind Their Excellence

 

You’ve mastered excellence.
You’ve mastered perception.
Now it’s time to master peace.

This is not a leadership course.
It’s a private recalibration partnership for high-capacity women whose image is their influence — and whose peace has become negotiable.

With Tanyika Mayhew Butler as your Think-Pivot Partner™, you will:

- protect your edge without draining your energy
-lead from clarity instead of constant pressure
-make image-safe pivots with strategy, not fear
-dismantle the chokeholds behind your exhaustion
-build a rhythm that sustains your excellence

This work is quiet.
Strategic.
Identity-safe.
Life-aligning.

Because in this season,

strategy — not stamina — sustains power.

If you feel the shift, the stretch, or the strain…
you don’t need to push harder.

You need a pivot — guided, protected, and executed with precision.

1:1 Think-Pivot Partner...Learn More

“You’re not burnt out, you’re just functionally exhausted.”

Take this FREE 5-page audit to see where your peace is leaking and how to start recovering your rhythm.