20 minute read
Black Men in Corporate America: Ambitious, Driven, and Blocked From the C-Suite
by Skip Spriggs, Pooja Jain-Link, and Julia Taylor Kennedy
Two decades ago, a powerful class of black men stepped up to the C-Suite. Then, progress halted. This momentum will only be regained when employers are ready to address the systemic challenges that face black men and women as they build their careers. Without robust data that specifies the needs of black men, employers will continue to stumble in the dark, falling back to “best guesses” instead of implementing targeted, transformative solutions. This article zeros in on the black male experience, drawn from the Center for Talent Innovation’s recent study in partnership with The Executive Leadership Council, of Black male and Black female professionals, Being Black in Corporate America: An Intersectional Exploration. In this article, we share black male professionals’ ambition; the challenges they face as they forge their careers; why they frequently choose entrepreneurship over corporate careers; and we offer a roadmap for employers looking to retain and support Black colleagues.
SKIP SPRIGGS is the former President and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council
POOJA JAIN-LINK is an executive vice president of the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI). Along with co-leading CTI’s groundbreaking research studies, she oversees culture audits at companies seeking to identify and implement best practices for building diverse, inclusive workplaces where every employee belongs.
TJULIA TAYLOR KENNEDY is an executive vice president of the Center for Talent Innovation. In addition to co-leading cutting-edge research into the issues impacting each member of today’s professional workforce, she oversees leadership development programs to build an inclusive and equitable global workplace where everyone can thrive. THE LATE 90’S TO EARLY AUGHTS was an auspicious time for black men in Corporate America. Richard Parsons, Ken Chenault, Stanley O’Neal, and Frank Raines, all black, helmed four of the country’s most prestigious organizations: AOL Time Warner, American Express, Merrill Lynch, and Fannie Mae. And the business press took note, heralding the rise of black professional power. 1 Then, progress stalled.
Based on today’s rates of college degree completion for black students, which have stayed steady for the last decade, the Fortune 500 should have 50 Black CEOs. 2 Today, according to independent tracking from The Executive Leadership Council, there are still only four – and still all men.
In an interview for the Center for Talent Innovation’s (CTI) recently published report, Being Black in Corporate America: An Intersectional Exploration, Richard D. Parsons, Former CEO of Time Warner Inc., was frank: “I thought the cohort that came through in the mid-90’s was just the beginning, and that there’d be a lot more. It just didn’t happen. There’s been dribs and drabs, but not a wave. And I’m not sure why that’s the case.”
Strides have been made to answer Parsons’s query, and to examine the experiences and outcomes for black professionals – male and female – in America. Researchers have examined the trajectory of black professionals through higher education, attempted to quantify bias in hiring practices, and measured levels of unemployment. For black men, a particularly disheartening story emerged. In March of 2018, The New York Times’ The Upshot column published Harvard economist Raj Chetty’s study into the outcomes for black and white men in the United States. Chetty’s macro-economic work revealed that the privilege of wealth does little to shield against the different starting gates of race; black men from the richest families still face the all-too-real possibility of sliding into poverty. 3 Yet as we, at CTI and the Executive Leadership Council, set out on this research, we found no comprehensive study documenting what happens to college-educated black men as they attempt to navigate the white-collar workforce in the United States.
With Being Black in Corporate America, we fill in this narrative for all black professionals with a robust study rooted in qualitative and quantitative research. We conducted one-on-one interviews with more than 40 black professionals across industries; hosted virtual and inperson focus groups; and fielded a nationally representative survey with 3,736 respondents between the ages of 21 and 65 currently employed full-time or self-employed in white-collar professions, with at least a bachelor’s degree.
As we began our analysis, we first disaggregated black professionals from the commonly-used umbrella of “people of color” – an approach that can flatten unique racial experiences. We also sought to break down another monolith: “black professionals.” Using an intersectional lens, we looked at gender, heritage, generation, U.S. region, and LGBTQ
identity. In certain instances, we zoomed in closer, looking at career level and alumni of historically black colleges and universities. The rich, nuanced stories we uncovered validated our approach. The differences that emerged make a strong case for employers to create solutions that acknowledge the spectrum of perspectives and needs.
Our research covered a range of stories about black men and women, across the many intersections of identity we mention above. Today, however, we will zoom in to just one area of focus black men – in order to begin to fill the existing research gaps and tell the differentiated story that emerged in our research. Black men, we found, are a cohort that enters corporate America with lofty ambition only to become discouraged by a much steeper career climb, leaving them eyeing greener pastures of entrepreneurship and small companies. Companies looking to engage, retain and promote black male leaders must act swiftly to implement solutions that address their specific needs. Deep drive to succeed Black men, our data shows, have the intrinsic motivation to succeed in the corporate workplace. We found that 67 percent of black men say they are “very ambitious”—while only 55 percent of white men say the same. When we dug into what motivates black men to succeed, we found that they are more likely than all other groups in our sample to be motivated by financially supporting their extended family. black men, we heard, feel both the pride and the burden of this motivator. Ella Bell Smith, Professor of Business Administration at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business, and an advisor on our report, shared, “Your family tells you you’re at the forefront: moving the family forward, moving the race forward, moving the community forward. It’s not just an individual dynamic.”
Black men also cultivate the connections to make their big dreams a reality. Three out of four of black men told us that they have strong professional networks. And we find that these networks extend well beyond the workplace. Collegiate networks proved particularly robust: black men are 2.5 times as likely as white men to be an active member of a college alumni group and are 2.6 times as likely to be an active member of a fraternity.
Inside the halls of Corporate America, however, it seems that the robust networks black men cultivate are not translating into critical access or meaningful career development. One black millennial male told us about a pattern he noticed among his white colleagues of affinity relationships
with those in power: “I didn’t have the social network that a lot of my white colleagues had. Having a neighbor or a family friend who is a senior in the industry—it just opened so many doors for them.” Indeed, we found that white men working full-time are 44 percent more likely than black men to say they have access to senior leaders at work.
Systemic racism reveals itself at work
Unfortunately, this is far from the only challenge black men face as they seek to build their careers. Most black men (58 percent) have encountered racial prejudice on the job. In fact, we found that black professionals, male and female, were more likely to report experiencing racial prejudice at work than any other racial or ethnic group we surveyed. Despite a disturbing rise in hate crimes since 2016, overt forms of racial discrimination are largely deemed socially unacceptable. 4 However, we found that more subtle, insidious prejudice, in the form of microaggressions, runs rampant in the workplace.
In the seminal work Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life, Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., and his team of researchers at Columbia University codify the language of microaggressions, which they define as “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group.” 5 Informed by Sue and his co-authors, we asked our survey takers if they had encountered any in a long list of scenarios, which fell into Sue’s three categories of microaggressions: micro assaults, deliberately discriminatory words or actions such as racial epithets, physical intimidation, or violence; microinsults, often unconscious comments that demean their victim by showing a lack of sensitivity towards an individual’s racial identity; and microinvalidations, often unconscious words or actions that dismiss or downplay the lived reality of a person of color. 6
We found that black professionals experience 14 of these microaggressions at a significantly higher rate than other racial groups—and black men and women are equally likely to experience almost all of them.
MICROASSAULTS
Overt forms of racism, such as racial epithets and other deliberately discriminatory actions Colleagues have used racially insensitive language
MICROINVALIDATIONS
Actions or comments, often unconscious, that dismiss or downplay the lived reality of a person
Colleagues have asserted that they are “color blind” (e.g., “I dont see race”) I have to explain what it is like to live as a person of my race/ethnicity I have been mistaken for someone else of the same racial background Colleagues have told me they have friends of my race/ethnicity Colleagues have asserted they’re not racist
MICROINSULTS
Often performed unconsciously, microinsults demean their target by showing a lack of sensitivity towards an individual’s racial identity
Colleagues have touched my hair without my permission I have been told I’m “not like others” of my race/ethnicity I have been repeatedly been told that “I’m articulate” Others have regularly taken credit for my ideas in meetings I have been excluded from meetings relevant to my job Others have mischaracterized me as “angry” I have been excluded or passed over for growth opportunities My manager has met one-on-one with others on my team, but not with me
Rather than shield from these indignities, we heard in interviews that senior leadership status can compound the likelihood that an employee will experience some microaggressions—a pattern that holds in our data for black male professionals, but not for white male professionals. The higher a black man climbs on the corporate ladder, the more likely he is to be the “only,” and the more likely he is to be considered a trusted insider—so white peers may feel freer to make racially charged comments in his presence.
In interviews, black male executives told us that they frequently experience microinsults. For example, colleagues frequently assume black male executives are more junior in the organization, or make comments such as, “you’re so articulate.” These subtle aggressions indicate that colleagues perceive black men as less capable and are surprised when a black man rises to the top of his field. But because microinsults are subtle, black leaders sometimes question how to interpret them. One black male executive told us, “I gave a speech, and one of my colleagues said, ‘That [speech] was amazing, did you write it yourself?’ I took that as, ‘How could you have written that?’ I pointed it out to someone else, and they said to me, ‘Aren’t you being paranoid? A little sensitive?’”
The powerful, pervasive stereotype that black men are threatening impacts which black men do manage to get to the C-suite. In interviews, black men shared with us that they calculate what they wear to work in order to counteract the threat their body conveys to white colleagues— from clothing to accessories that “soften” their appearance, like glasses. One psychology review from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University supports this finding— black male CEOs with “baby faces” are associated with greater corporate and financial success compared to more mature-faced black CEOs, while the opposite pattern emerged for white male CEOs. 7
As a black male executive working in the Fortune 500 C-suite shared, “I could write you encyclopedias of the indignities I’ve suffered. But, if I wasted time wallowing in that, I couldn’t possibly be effective. It’s not that I compartmentalize – the frustration is ongoing – I just can’t let it derail me.”
Understandably, many black male professionals do hit a point where they cannot take any more—and look to leave their current employer, or the corporate workplace all together. A full one-third (33 percent) of black male professionals told us they intend to leave their current companies
within two years. As a black millennial male in financial services told us: “There are not many senior leaders that look like me. So how am I going to get to that level, how is there a path for me? Over three, 10, 15 years, maybe I could be the first one to break through.”
The allure of entrepreneurship
Where are black men going? As we set out on this study, we saw that back male entrepreneurship has been documented, but not recently researched in relationship to more traditional corporate careers. 8,9,10 Our research uncovered that many black men indeed are pursuing entrepreneurship—no doubt leveraging their strong networks to do so. Further, we found that black men have an entrepreneurial drive that outpaces their black female counterparts and all white professionals: of those who are not currently business owners, black men are 3.2 times more likely than white men to be planning to leave to start their own ventures (38 percent black men versus nine percent white men), and 58 percent more likely to have started their own business ventures (41 percent black men versus 26 percent white men). As a black male millennial told us, “Amongst my circle of friends, there is definitely a focus on having our own businesses and using our skillset for ourselves instead of for a company we don’t run.” Michael C. Bush, the CEO of Great Place to Work, shared, “Generally speaking, the smaller the company is the more each person is needed. When people are respectfully asked to do, more they have more opportunities to develop and excel. Entrepreneurism is the ultimate situation because the equity provides the sweet freedom to be your beautiful unedited self.”
From our research results, we have a vivid portrait of what pushes black men out of the workplace, from the daily litany of microaggressions to lack of a line of sight to leadership. But we also wanted to understand the pull factors: what black men gain when they leave for an entrepreneurial venture, or to work at smaller companies. What black men who have worked at both small and large companies find at large employers does not come as much of a surprise. Large companies are more likely to provide good benefits, higher—and more stable—income, opportunities to travel, and amenities such as car service that ease the day-to-day grind. The five advantages that are far more common at small companies for black men aren’t so straightforward. On the contrary, they represent the intangible components of an inclusive workplace culture.
■ Ability to implement your ideas – 64 percent at a small company, 32 percent at a large company ■ Authority – 68 percent at a small company, 39 percent at a large company ■ A sense of belonging – 67 percent at a small company, 40 percent at a large company ■ Respect for your contributions – 66 percent at a small company, 43 percent at a large company ■ Trust with colleagues – 62 percent at a small company, 42 percent at a large company
If large organizations can continue to deliver on the traditional promises of corporate employment while developing innovative ways to replicate these unmet needs, they stand to slow attrition and move towards a better working world not just for black men, but for all black professionals.
Assessing what exists
As we pivot toward the forward-thinking solutions that might truly move the needle for black men, we first examined the efficacy of common programs in place today. After all, companies invest billions of dollars on diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts annually. 11 Yet as sociologists Frank Dobbins and Alexandra Kalev write in their sweeping analysis of D&I efforts at more than 700 private sector organizations, “At best, ‘best practices’ are best guesses. We know a lot about the disease of workplace inequality, but not much about the cure.” We found that only 36 percent of black male full-time employees agree that D&I efforts in their workplaces are effective.
Though trust in D&I’s effectiveness is, in fact, low across the board, the first step towards an inclusive culture for black men is to mitigate risk. We’ve analyzed established D&I solutions and identified the ones that boost black men’s satisfaction with advancement and intent to stay at their companies. We see these solutions as table stakes for companies looking to retain black men.
Some of these programs, as you will see in figure to the right, do lay the groundwork for those entrepreneurship intangibles—authority, trust, belonging, and respect. At best, however, these solutions only boost the likelihood of satisfaction with advancement and retention among black men to 38 percent. Yet without them, black men are even less likely to be staying and satisfied with their advancement.
Top five advantages for black men at small companies over large ones*
1
2
3
4
5 Ability to implement your ideas
Authority
A Sense of belonging
Respect for your contributions
Trust with colleagues
Top five advantages for black men at large companies over small ones*
1 Good benefits
2
3
4
5 High income
Opportunities to travel
Stable income
Amenities (e.g., dry-cleaning)
*These questions were only asked of those who have worked at both large and small companies. Small companies have fewer than 100 employees, and large companies have 100 or more employees.
One notable intervention that makes a difference for black men is providing funding to attend external conferences for people of color. In interviews, we heard that community-building, along with opportunities to learn from other black men, plays a crucial role in their ability to navigate through the workplace. Organizations such as the National Association of Black Accountants and the National Society of Black Engineers offer enriching conferences that help many Black men find their footing in corporate America, as well as enable them to further expand their already-strong networks.
Moderated forums for conversations about race are another not-tobe-overlooked solution. As we explored in our research on Easing Racial Tensions at Work, silence about race can feel like endorsement of racialized violence and rhetoric. Yet about two-thirds of all employees are currently uncomfortable talking about race. 12 Companies can provide space and facilitation for employees to convene around this challenging topic. When black men have a safe space to discuss the emotions that come with the day to day stressors attached to their gender and race, such as the danger
of “driving while black,” it can be productive as well as healing. When nonblack employees can hear a colleague’s differentiated experience as a black man in America, it can evoke empathy and understanding, and prime them for more active allyship.
Since 2007, all white male directors, vice presidents, and senior executives at Lockheed Martin are mandated to participate in Effective Leadership of Inclusive Teams, a program that begins with immersive and experimental learning labs for no more than 25 participants and culminates in a Summit for up to 80 Lockheed employees. The labs create an environment where participants feel comfortable sharing their experiences, questions, and concerns regarding diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The curriculum encourages men to consider the tenets and impact of white male culture in the U.S., insider-outsider dynamics, privilege, and structural racism. The 1.5-day summit builds on the lab work, replicating some of the activities on a larger scale. This comprehensive experience helps white men awaken to the unique privilege and power they hold in the workplace. Through carefully crafted conversations and activities, they learn how to better interact with employees across difference; Lockheed boasts that the program has empowered its leaders to become more proactive in D&I conversations and promote inclusion at the organization.
Unilever is seeking to better educate its employee base through a program called “Cultural Immersion – the Black Experience.” All of Unilever’s marketing employees, as well as others, if space permits, attend the 4.5-hour-long program—which has become so popular, it is almost always full. Part of a series of cultural competency training programs, The Black Experience was created in partnership with Language and Culture Worldwide (LCW), a global consulting firm which conducts intersectional research on effective and ineffective approaches for companies marketing to black consumers. Volunteers from BeU, Unilever’s black employee ERG, provide input and feedback on the programming, which focuses on the history and experiences of black communities, allowing Unilever to update and improve the curriculum annually. Since the launch of the program, Unilever has trained 4,000 local and global employees at both Unilever and partner agencies. The program works towards many positive outcomes for non-Black employees: to eradicate bias and harmful stereotypes about the black community, to engender understanding and empathy for the black experience within Unilever and outside of the workplace, and help marketers better cater to its black clients.
Once companies have meaningfully taken the first two steps – evaluating corporate work culture with an audit, and awakening employees to think critically and talk about issues of race and racial equity – they can begin to act. The importance of co-creating these transformative solutions— and co-owning the outcomes—cannot be overstated. Employers must act with black, Latinx, Asian, and white stakeholders around the table, engaged in the conversation, heard, and valued. Some outcomes could include levelling the playing field on sponsorship – advocacy by senior leaders on behalf of high potential talent – for black men, and developing a more severe stance on discrimination: once employees have been given a foundational education on microaggression, a company could act by implementing a “no microaggressions” policy. Being Black in Corporate America exposes a rocky path for black men to top leadership, surrounded by a thicket of systemic factors in their way. Yet the future can be full of hope.
Our call to action could not be clearer: if companies pivot toward tailored, co-created solutions that address the needs of black men, they engage a hugely valuable cohort. We can stop the brain drain by nailing the basics, and then thinking more broadly. Black men do find many things appealing about corporate life—especially the stability, opportunity for financial security, and for a comfortable lifestyle through which they can support their families. But they also want the things they seek in entrepreneurial ventures or at small companies; a sense of belonging, trust, respect, and authority. In order to get there, companies need to engage with deeper work – education and empathy-building, to name two, in order to engage white employees as allies; action and policies built with input from all employees. Being Black in Corporate America is an expansive sweep of the black working experience and demonstrates that there is much work to be done. But when employers undertake this work, equipped with knowledge about what black men and women need, and a desire to disrupt systemic prejudice and unlock white allyship, we stand not only to regain the momentum of black leadership, but cascade those gains to other groups. Because when we transform our workplaces into more equitable, inclusive spaces, we all benefit.
Notes:
1 – https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2002/07/22/326294/index.htm 2 – https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_322.20.asp 3 – https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/19/upshot/race-class-white-and-black-men.html 4 – Griffin Sims Edwards and Stephen Rushin, “The Effect of President Trump’s Election on Hate Crimes,” January 31, 2019, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3102652 5 – Derald Wing Sue, Christina M. Capodilupo, Gina C. Torino, Jennifer M. Bucceri, Aisha M. B. Holder, Kevin L. Nadal and Marta Esquilin, “Racial Microagressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice,” American Psychologist 62, no. 4 (2007): 271-286. 6 – Ibid. 7 – Robert W. Livingston and Nicholas A. Pearce, “The Teddy-Bear Effect: Does Having a Baby Face Benefit Black Chief Executive Officers?” Psychological Science, 20, no. 10 (October 2009): 1229-1236, doi:10.1111/ j.1467-9280.2009.02431.x 8 – https://fortune.com/longform/black-executives-men-c-suite/ 9 – https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=blackstudfacpub 10 – https://www.guidantfinancial.com/small-business-trends/african-americans-in-business/ 11 – Daniel Culbertson, “Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Grow Briskly,” Indeed Hiring Lab, March 26, 2018, https://www.hiringlab.org/2018/03/26/diversity-and-inclusion-grows-briskly/ “Glassdoor report reveals one-third of hiring decision makers expect to increase investment in diversity & inclusion programs in next year,” Glassdoor, November 7, 2017, https://www.glassdoor.com/about-us/ glassdoor-report-reveals-one-third-of-hiring-decision-makers-expect-to-increase-investment-in-diversityinclusion-programs-in-next-year/ “Diversity & Inclusion Technology: The Rise of a Transformative Market,” Mercer, accessed October 18, 2019, https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/career/diversity-and-inclusion-technology.html Rik Kirkland and Iris Bohnet, “Focusing on what works for workplace diversity,” McKinsey & Company, April 2017, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/focusing-on-what-works-for-workplacediversity 12 – Ella Bell Smith, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Trevor Phillips, Ripa Rashid with Melinda Marshall and Tai Wingfield, Easing Racial Tensions at Work (New York: Center for Talent Innovation, 2017).
