How Minority Managers Make It to the Top

By Leon E. Wynter

AFRICAN-AMERICAN executives have been tapped to run Maytag, Fannie Mae, software maker Symantec and American Express. They also came within hailing distance of the top at Merrill Lynch and General Mills.

These executives represent more than six additional exceptions to the rule that minorities are excluded from the pinnacle of corporate management. A new model of success shows seasoned minority managers pushing through narrow pipelines to the top of a growing number of firms, says David A. Thomas, co-author with John J. Gabarro of “Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America.”

The insightful book, published by the Harvard Business School Press, contrasts the careers of white and nonwhite middle managers and executives at three unidentified multibillion-dollar firms to see what distinguishes minorities who “break through” to the top from their white peers as well as from minority middle managers who have plateaued.

Unlike minorities who stalled in middle management, successful minority executives focused on improving essential skills and establishing performance records during the frustrating wait for advancement. They also reported building more than twice as many mentor relationships during their early careers as their white executive peers did.

Mr. Thomas notes the corporate ladder is tilted away from minority managers, especially at the lower rungs, because most companies stumble in recognizing, developing and promoting talent. Minority executives take much longer to make it to middle management than white executives, but catch up fast on the middle rungs of the ladder.

Advocates for minorities remain skeptical, saying the recent elevations may be more about individual achievement than a trend for minorities as a whole.

“Just by the fact that we can still count [promoted black executives], I don’t want to get overly excited about it,” says Paula Banks, a BP Amoco executive who is president of the Executive Leadership Council, a professional group for senior-level African-Americans in major corporations. The group has nearly 200 members, up from 18 in 1987.

“I think [minorities] should view the situation as hopeful, because there are models for success,” says Mr. Thomas. But, he adds, many still find they can’t overcome inequalities in the workplace. “It makes people skeptical about being too hopeful,” he says.

He says a huge gap in diversity strategies persists between big, progressive firms that produce top minority executives by encouraging and developing their early careers and the larger universe of companies that try to meet their numbers simply by hiring proven minority talent.

Many senior executives have used unprecedented educational opportunities in the ’70s to rise to the top at progressive companies that helped them develop their careers, says Joanna Miller, a managing director with executive recruiter Korn/Ferry International. Today they’re nearing the top just as the demand for executive talent, especially minority talent, far outstrips the supply, and the pipeline behind them is growing wider, she adds.

A Korn/Ferry study of 280 minorities with titles of vice president or higher (out of 1,800 the firm identified) found 41% of respondents had pay packages exceeding $300,000 and 62% reporting being “very well” satisfied with their careers. The executives are twice as willing to move to another firm for increased challenges and responsibility as their white counterparts, the research suggests.

Korn/Ferry’s Ms. Miller says she doubts anyone will even be talking about the issue of black promotions 10 years from now, if current supply- and-demand trends hold.

Source : CareerJournal.com

4 Responses to “How Minority Managers Make It to the Top”

1. diversityprober Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 11:04 pm

   Fact is, minority managers have to be more deeply grounded and better prepared than their white peers if they are to become top executives because they are promoted only after proving themselves again and again.

2. exec1972 Says:
   October 6th, 2007 at 12:02 am

   It is important for minorities to study the careers of people of color that have made it to where they want to be in their industry, company, and in their career specialty to figure out what they did to get there so they can duplicate the process. True progress will take many more years. But in at least a few corners of the corporate world, change has started to arrive.

3. careerguide Says:
   October 6th, 2007 at 1:09 am

   Minorities shouldn’t rely on company diversity programs to climb the corporate ladder. Achieving success is up to them. They should prove they contribute to the bottom line and produce results.

4. Gavin Says:
   October 6th, 2007 at 11:07 am

   Gavin

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