America has an urgent need for Latino and Latina executives. This book identifies a path to uplift and amplify their representation in leadership.
Dr. Robert Rodriguez and Andrés T. Tapia call it the "4 percent Shame"-the low percentage of Latino corporate executives today. Inspired by Price Cobbs's seminal work on the secrets of successful Black leaders, this book seeks to understand the external forces of conscious and unconscious biases and the internal forces that create tensions for many Latinos about whether to assimilate, opt out, or double down on their cultural identities in their quest to get ahead.
Using insights from in-depth interviews with twenty highly successful boomer Latino and Latina executives and focus groups with dozens of Gen X and millennial leaders, the authors have captured lessons about how these individuals chose their career paths, how they addressed challenges, and how they seized opportunities. The discussions are interpreted through the lenses of the authors' different personal experiences as Latino leaders in corporate America and synthesized as a guide for future leaders.