Book Review

Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America

Author: David A. Thomas and John Gabarro.
Published: Harvard Business School.
Review by WetFeet.com, Online Career Advice Service

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Race and Executive Development

What does it take for a person of color to get to the top of a career ladder? According to the authors of Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America (Harvard Business School Press, 1999, $29.95), the path to the top is fundamentally different for minorities than for whites.

“Minorities have to pay a ‘tax’ in the form of time,” explains co-author David Thomas, a Harvard Business School professor of organizational behavior and human resources development, who researched and wrote the book with John Gabarro, a professor of human resource management at Harvard Business School.

The book, an in-depth study of the development and advancement of minority executives, found that while white managers on the “fast track” early in their careers were likely to reach the executive level fairly quickly, this was not true for minority managers whose progress was often likely to stall.

Thomas, an African American, says that his own path to full professorship at Harvard took longer than those of his white colleagues. “Inequality in career mobility does exist,” Thomas says. “But the pathways to success are there.” And it’s getting better: “Today, there are more people of color in coveted jobs in growing and prestigious firms than ten years ago.”

Here are some tips to help manoeuvre through the obstacles that minorities often face in trying to advance in their careers:

Choose Work You Love

Above all else, minorities who love their work are able to stick with it longer and not be veered off course by biases and prejudices in the workplace. "When people do work that is not intrinsically satisfying, they will exit or lower their level of performance when they meet obstacles," Thomas says.

If you love your work, it makes it easier to continue to do an excellent job, even if you’re not being promoted as fast as your white colleagues. According to Thomas, "It also makes it easier at some point to decide that if you can’t succeed where you are, you take your talents elsewhere."

Pick the Organization Carefully

Don’t choose an organization that’s a poor fit for you, even though you love the work you do. If you hate your work, or the company you work for, you will probably not perform your best, and you might leave prematurely. And if you leave on a sour note, it could follow you your entire career. "Reputation matters even more for you than it does for your white counterparts," says Thomas. "Minorities pay a higher price for these mistakes."

One way to find out if a company is a good fit is to talk with people in the organization who do the same work as you—both whites and minorities. Don’t ask how they like it, but ask them to describe what they do, how managers interact with them, and whom they turn to with problems.

Red flags: employees who say they have to figure out problems for themselves, turn to peers for help, or if the company has a Darwinian attitude that the strongest will survive. Says Thomas, "For minorities, if you are not getting the networking and professional help you need, you’re often treading water."

Steer clear of organizations without high-ranking women or minorities. Thomas notes that consumer-oriented companies, such as in retail and banking, tend to have a more diverse workforce with better opportunities for advancement.

Find a Mentor

This is easier said than done, but it’s vital: Help from others is the best inoculation against pitfalls early in one’s career, especially for minorities. But don’t necessarily look to the senior vice president to mentor you early in your career. "More likely candidates are your boss, or senior peers," says Thomas.

People of color can also find valuable support and friendship from other people of color who may not be on the fast track or senior, but who understand the corporation. “This kind of assistance can help you gain sure footing,” Thomas says. But don’t fall into the “sidekick” trap—a close attachment to one mentor that inhibits getting other contacts. Think of developing a portfolio of relationships—in case the mentor leaves the company or the relationship ends. Also, keep your eye out for possible new mentors as you advance in your career. Racial differences, however, often inhibit a relationship in the beginning. “Rely on your good performance and reputation to move the relationships beyond the superficial,” says Thomas.

Race Matters, But Alone It Won’t Determine Your Fate

Minority executives who are successful never take race to be a determining factor. This does not mean being naive or denying that race is sometimes at the root of a problem. “It means treating problems as solvable,” says Thomas.

Successful minority executives are conscious about their race, but not self-conscious. “Overcoming (self-consciousness) about your race is a process,” Thomas says. Some executives interviewed for the book were helped by developing connections with other people of color, individually and through self-help groups. However, to go through that process requires being in a work environment that is not so loaded with racism that it requires all your effort to respond to the daily oppression.

Thomas says that a colleague, after reading a draft of his book, commented that it seemed minority managers who were stuck in dead-end careers had tried to “play the white man’s (career) game,”—that is, choosing the fast track over the quality and love of their work experience. In contrast, minority executives who were successful were playing their own game, where climbing to the top is less important than love of work and the person’s own internal standards of excellence.

“It may be the ‘white man’s game’ is no longer a good game for anyone to play,’’ the authors conclude.

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