Latino Talent: Effective Strategies to Recruit, Retain and Develop Hispanic Professionals

CHAPTER 6

LATINO LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Changes in demographics and consumer markets make a focus on the development of Latino leaders not a luxury, but a necessity. Because our organizations are going to compete in a marketplace that is more diverse, organizations need leadership teams that represent that diversity. Organizations that fail to develop Latino leaders are at a disadvantage when it comes to their ability to meet current and future competitive demands.

Yet within organizations today, there is a resistance to Latino leadership development initiatives. Some managers erroneously believe that the Latino leadership development needs are no different than those of everyone else in the organization. Others think that their Latino employees would not want to be singled out by having leadership development programs created specifically for them. And there are still others who resist in the name of fairness with concerns that if they create a leadership development program for Latinos, they'll have to create one for every minority and underrepresented employee group in the company and they can't afford to do that.

The leadership development needs of Latino professionals are unique because their workplace experience differs from that of their coworkers. As discussed in Chapter 3, not only do certain cultural aspects tend to unite Latinos, these aspects also tend to make them different from non-Latinos. By creating initiatives specific to Latino development needs, organizations ...