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Have you ever been in this situation? You go to work on your very first day, eager and mentally ready to finally conquer Excel. You get signed in by security and enter the elevator, maybe meeting a smiling face or two. You walk through the doors of your new job, greet the receptionist, get ushered in and quickly notice that mostly everyone around you is of the same racial or ethnic makeup.

It can be disheartening to work in a corporation that offers amazing benefits, but very little of diversity within. But we shouldn’t be too hard on HR; some businesses just may not understand the various ways in which diversity would truly benefit them beyond gaining Multicultural Excellence Awards for their advertising campaigns. Here are the top nine ways that diversity benefits businesses:

Source: WENN

From The Grio

Is there a leadership crisis in black America? A new poll suggests African-Americans think so.

The poll was commissioned by BET founder Robert L. Johnson, also the chairman of The RLJ Companies, and was released by Zogby Analytics.  And the results are shocking.

According to the online survey of 1,002 African-Americans, when asked the question “Which of the following speaks for you most often?” 40 percent said that no one speaks for them, while 24 percent said the Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network and MSNBC speaks for black people, and 11 percent said the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH.

Meanwhile, 9 percent of black respondents named Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D‐CA), 8 percent said NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous speaks for them, and 5 percent mentioned Assistant Democratic Leader, Congressman James E. Clyburn (D‐SC).  Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele each received 2 percent.

Read more on TheGrio.com.

Women make up only 21 percent of leadership roles at nonprofit organizations with more than $25 million budgets, according to the “Benchmarking Women’s Leadership” study from the Women’s College of the University of Denver and The White House Project.

And minority women, including African Americans, make up an even smaller percentage. Here are some amazing African-American women who are leading cool nonprofit organizations across the country.

Beverly Bond, CEO of Black Girls Rock!
Launched in 2006, Black Girls Rock! is a youth enrichment and empowerment program based in New York that encourages young black women to get involved in music, culture, and the arts. Founder Beverly Bond has grown the organization to include a leadership camp and an annual awards show, which took place for the seventh time in 2012 and aired on BET on November 4.

Image: WhiteHouse.gov

Forbes has released its list of the top 100 ladies running the world. Among the illustrious women on this list are:

• First Lady Michelle Obama (#7)
• Oprah Winfrey (#11)
• Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox (#17)
• Beyonce (#32)
• Helene Gayle, CEO of the humanitarian organization CARE (#52)
• Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme
• Joyce Banda, President of Malawi (#71)
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia (#82)

Landing on the top spot for a second year is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with U.S. Secretary of State (and dutty wine champion) Hillary Clinton at number two. You can check out the full list here.

Be sure to also check out the list of “Women to Watch” (Robin Roberts, the co-anchor of Good Morning America, is among the women on that list) and the list of “Women Changing the World” (supermodel Liye Kebede is making a difference on the issue of maternal health).

madamenoire.com

When referring to humans, we usually hear the term “alpha male” when describing a man who is powerful, competitive and is a leader who stands out among all men. But the same term applies to women who possess similar traits – the Alpha Female.

Alpha Females are intelligent, “take charge” women who can be seen as powerful, or aggressive, depending on who you ask. Being an Alpha Female should be looked at as a good thing, but most bold women are sometimes recognized as high-maintenance or even a Itchbay by society’s standards.

So are you an Alpha Female? If so, there may be some pros and cons to possessing strong traits. If you are unsure, read through these characteristics to see if any of them describe you.

Read the rest of this entry »

When a new study came out earlier this month suggesting that assertive black women receive less backlash than white women on the job because they’re expected to be strong, it seemed like a bit of a catch 22. But the researchers behind the study say black women can use this information to their advantage in the work place because what the results really show is that they are good leaders.

“There’s this idea that acting dominantly is explicitly proscribed for white women and explicitly proscribed for black men,” says Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, co-author of the study and an associate professor at Duke. “However, for black women there is this stereotype out there of the ‘angry black woman.’ Some of these behaviors we often think of as extremely negative but actually, if you think about it, that angry black woman stereotype is also congruent with things like being aggressive, dominant, assertive, and self-assured—and those are our typical leader characteristics.”

In an online survey of 84 non-black participants conducted by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, subjects were asked a series of questions based on eight different scenarios with executives either communicating dominant or communal behaviors. When the results were tabulated, aggressive and direct leadership reflected negatively on white females and black males, but surprisingly it was seen as positive coming from black women and white men.

The reason for this, Rossette says, is that in the minds of most people, “Black women aren’t just a mirror image of white women—they occupy a new and unique space.” When you think of women, white females typically come to mind, and when when it comes to race, there’s usually an image of a black man. Because black women fall in between the two, they are seemingly safe from the negative outlooks placed on either group.

Rossette says these results require a new way of thinking about the power black women currently hold in the workplace, yet there is still much to do.

“When a black woman occupies a leadership position, she may have more behavioral freedom than we previously thought to communicate more forthrightly and recognize that she won’t necessarily be penalized because of that.

“But the presumption in our research is that she currently occupies the position. It’s completely counterintuitive to what we thought would happen when black women occupy these top positions, but the next aspect is how do we get them into these positions.”

Do you agree with this study’s findings about black women’s assertive nature making them good leaders?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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In a New York Times book review of Manning Marable’s just released biography on Malcolm X, it is revealed that Marable’s quintessential work is embedded with a Trojan horse that, once installed and released, will eviscerate the long held – and mostly cosmetic –representation of one of our most beloved civil rights leaders.  The review reads as follows:

“Malcolm X himself contributed to many of the fictions, Mr. Marable argues, by exaggerating, glossing over or omitting important incidents in his life. These episodes include a criminal career far more modest than he claimed, an early homosexual relationship with a white businessman…”

The claim – that Malcolm X took, or was taken with, a white male lover- is now perfectly poised to ignite a firestorm of debate in the African American community. But just as Marable’s biography affords us the opportunity to reexamine the inner workings of a leader who offered the ultimatum of “the bullet or the ballot box” as the only alternative to a pacifist movement, it also offers African Americans the unique opportunity to examine ourselves and our progress post Malcolm and Martin. Just as we are now peering into the most intimate details of Malcolm’s life, so must we examine our own psychological progress.

And if African-Americans had truly absorbed the historical lessons of race hatred, many of which are drawn directly from the experience of being outsiders in one’s own country, we would demonstrate an inclination toward embracing human complexity.  Instead, however, our tendency is to judge those who deviate outside the bounds of archetypical expressions of manhood, womanhood, and even humankind.

We were shocked at revelations about M. L. King’s extramarital affairs and in the 21^st century, Malcolm X is not alone in the category of deceased and deified exemplars that have had their celestial status come crashing down amid claims that their behavior was inconsistent with their ideals.  In the recently released biography, “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India”, author Joseph Lelyveld recalls Gahndi’s particularly disparaging view of black South Africans:

“We could understand not being classed with whites, but to be placed on the same level as the ­Natives seemed too much to put up with. Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilized—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals.”

I don’t dispute that Gandhi’s feeling of being a bit higher up on the totem pole than black South Africans, and Malcolm X’s homosexual tryst (or love affair, not sure which since I haven’t read the book), are, if true, revelatory on many levels. However, my reaction to both is the same:  big shrug.

In response to who we are as humans, our individual psychology, our connections, and our desire for connection, we express our humanity in a variety of ways, none of which are identical in their manifestations.  If Malcolm expressed his affection with a man, so be it.

And I’m even less surprised that Gandhi would adopt some of the same traits as his white colonizers. When insults and degrading classifications are heaped upon you, projecting those insults onto another class of people is a neat – albeit destructive- psychological trick.

Gandhi and Malcolm X were–first and foremost–human.  All humans are allowed their own particular incarnation and do not require our approval or acceptance to exist. In fact, any person who requires the approval of another is owned by that person or group. I for one am happy that Gandhi and Malcolm X weren’t owned by anyone. Could they really have accomplished what they did had they been preoccupied with the reactions and petty assessments of others?

In a letter to her husband John Adams, Abigail Adams said that “all men would be tyrants if they could.” Most men, and increasingly many women, gravitate toward tyrannical leadership models once they are in a place of entrenched power.  We should be forever grateful for the few men and women who chose to answer the call to serve.  And we should appreciate the full portrait that biographers like Marable are painting since they teach us that our leaders aren’t gods, but human like us. And what they can do, so can we. An honest portrait empowers us while a dishonest portrait deifies our leaders while caricaturing the masses as weak.

Instead of igniting debate, the new insights into the lives of Malcolm X and Gandhi should inspire us all to apply our talents and embrace the grandest idea of ourselves. These insights actually aren’t a Trojan horse at all, but a gift for the benefit of humanity–but we’ll only reap these benefits if we’re evolved enough to receive them.  Standing around the water cooler discussing the details of Malcolm’s sexuality or Gandhi’s view of blacks doesn’t move us forward in the least.

Yvette Carnell is a former Capitol Hill Staffer turned political blogger. She currently publishes two blogs, Spatterblog.com and BreakingBrown.com.

(Inc) — Since joining Fentress Architects two years ago, CEO Agatha Kessler has emphasized that character matters as much as competence in effective workplaces. Employees who work together well are especially important for the firm, a Denver-based finalist on this year’s Top Small Company Workplaces list with $104 million in annual revenue and 155 employees. Fentress is working on a mammoth project to modernize Los Angeles International Airport. Kessler explained her views on team building and a process she calls mutual mentorship to Inc.‘s Leigh Buchanan.

Read  More…

(Black Enterprise) — Change happens. And once upon a time, all that was expected of business leaders was to “manage” it: prevent it or minimize its impact, make the proper adjustments, and establish a new status quo as soon as possible—until it happens again. And until very recently, this was enough. In fact, the ability to effectively manage change was the mark of a visionary entrepreneur or executive.

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