The Idea in Brief
You’ve hired the best and brightest—only to watch many promising minority professionals get mired in middle management and leave, frustrated and angry, for better careers with your competitors.
Why the exodus? It’s the two-tournament system: According to a recent study, whites tend to fast track early; minorities, after years in middle management. Minority managers who stay motivated during the protracted early stages of their careers—and finally reach the executive level—share a key resource: a strong network of mentors and corporate sponsors who provide instruction, coaching, and—most important—long-term, close developmental support.
The two-tournament system isn’t fair. But until it’s eradicated, minorities can best advance by building and drawing on a solid mentoring network. They and their companies win.
The Idea in Practice
The stark difference in career trajectories of white and minority executives has major implications for high-potential minorities—and their mentors—during each career-development stage:
Stage 1: Entry level to middle management. As minorities watch their white counterparts quickly receive plum assignments and promotions into middle management, many grow discouraged. But some remain motivated. How? They forge mentoring relationships with widely diverse individuals who open the door to challenging assignments and expanded responsibilities, sending the message, “These are high performers.” Mentors also provide career advice and protect protégés from people leveling unfair criticism.
Result? During this stage, future minority executives evaluate themselves in terms of personal growth, not external rewards. Less concerned with how slowly they’re climbing the corporate ladder, they embrace the work itself.
Stage 2: Middle to upper middle management. Promising minorities “catch up” to fast-tracked whites. Through promotions, they deepen and broaden their functional expertise, gaining influence over subordinates who might otherwise be resistant to minority leaders.
Tackling more complex challenges, minorities demonstrate their potential and extend their credibility. By changing functions, requesting special projects, and switching locations, they further enhance their success. At this stage, they extend their mentoring relationships to include powerful corporate-level sponsors.
Stage 3: Upper middle to executive level. Minority and white executives finally converge. Minority managers take on challenges specific to working cross-functionally, learning to think and act more strategically and politically. To further distinguish themselves, they score highly visible successes directly related to the company’s core strategy.
They also continue developing their networks of highly placed mentors and sponsors. Their relationships with their immediate bosses become particularly crucial. They establish several new, long-term relationships with other executives as well, both white and minority.
Cross-race mentoring challenges. Cross-race mentoring relationships raise unique challenges. For example, some minority protégés may avoid such relationships so as not to attract scrutiny, spawn peers’ resentment, or “sell out” their culture.
But if both parties can build a strong foundation of mutual trust, they’ll more likely surmount those challenges. If you’re a mentor:
- Openly discuss racial sensitivities. Minorities tend to advance further when their white mentors acknowledge race as a potential barrier.
- See yourself in your protégés—they’re like you were, years ago. If you can identify with each other, you’ll forge closer relationships.
- If you’re unsure whether you’re the best role model, help protégés identify other appropriate supporters.
Diversity has become a top priority in corporate America. Despite the best intentions, though, many organizations have failed to achieve racial balance within their executive teams. Some have revolving doors for talented minorities, recruiting the best and brightest only to see them leave, frustrated and even angered by the barriers they encounter. Other companies are able to retain high-potential professionals of color only to have them become mired in middle management. Still others have minorities in their executive ranks, but only in racialized positions, such as those dealing with community relations, equal employment opportunity, or ethnic markets.
