According to USA Today reports, it might not be surprising that fewer than 2% of top executives in the nation’s 50 largest companies are Black.
When C-suite executives look around, they don’t have to be told the statistics about the lack of diverse representation because they live it every day when they go to work where they are often the only person of color in the room.
Yet the lack of diversity in the executive realm (corporations are spending millions on diversity efforts), why are so few Black people in these highly-esteemed jobs?
The multifaceted, complex problem results from a myriad of reasons that could range from a lack of advancement opportunities, networking gaps, and more that are leaving potential Black executives behind the eight ball.
With Black people accounting for about 12% of the U.S. population (but occupying only 3.2% of the senior leadership roles at large companies in the country), some could even point to the lack of promotions causing Black employees to change jobs more frequently and miss out on what could have been professional, according to national reports.
Rodney E. Cole, vice president of the DTE Energy Foundation and director of community engagement for public affairs DTE Energy, said that his semi-new position as V.P. at the Foundation is the highest career level he’s ever been at in his life. He credits his hard work and success to being passionate about his career and doing sincere work while keeping an open mind.
“I always continued to be curious and learn more and more about the different areas I have been exposed to and that is why my career has gone in different areas I worked in,” Cole said, adding that he has been at DTE for 15 years, changing positions within the company every few years or so.
Cole said that it is “critically important” for more Black people to hold executive-level positions, with companies putting in the work to recruit them, too.
“What this is really speaking to is how diversity is working in corporate America,” he said, adding that corporate America is a small microcosm of America. “There is an obvious benefit to the operation of the business when you’ve got diverse perspectives and leadership-business benefit.”
Cole added that it’s crucial for up-and-coming Black executives, and even current ones, to boost their network of resources to get input from others who could continue to help them reach higher levels.
“You won’t have all the answers,” he said, adding that his own network involves C-suite and non-C-suite individuals, some who are retired. “They were at different levels of leadership. … I still benefit from their experience.”
Winona Bynum, executive director at Detroit Food Policy Council, said that Black executives have “so much to bring to the table,” and continued efforts need to be made to ensure more Black people have a seat at the table in and out of the corporate world.
Bynum, whose work surrounds justice issues and fairness, said that her career involved working in I.T. and being a registered dietician, among other talents and compassions that helped her advance to where she is today.
“What led me to this work was seeing the hunger issues and wanting to be involved in helping people get access to healthy food,” Bynum said, adding that she had roles doing community organization and nonprofit work along the way, too. “That prepared me and … throughout my career I always was never afraid to step up and take the lead. To speak up or to go out for the promotion … and prepare myself for it.”
Jocelyn Giangrande, executive coach at Bloomfield-based SASHE, LLC (an acronym for Sisters Achieving Success Harmony and Empowerment), helps coach leaders, companies, and organizations, helping make things more transparent through an equitable lens she says is vital in companies.
“I think that it all has to do with … creating that environment that is equitable and equity is the big component,” Giangrande said, adding that what she found advanced her career was, naturally, building networks. What she noticed, though, along the way were the “hidden networks” and “hidden mentors” that companies and organizations have the Black professionals are not always privy.
“It depends on your connection,” she said, adding that companies and organizations may not even know they are hiding, so to speak, or making these networks and mentors inaccessible to Black people and others.
Giangrande said that once companies, and even Black executives, understand and see where those potential barriers can be (and work on it), doors will steadily open up for more equity in the company.
She also said that another barrier to the C-suite world for Black executives could be the H.R. pipeline as these H.R. groups could be finding talent through the same old ways where diversity might not be at the top of mind.
“It starts with H.R. doing a search, an executive search, or hiring a search firm,” she said, adding that it’s about opening up all the informal and formal pathways to allow every possible candidate access to a particular job, especially at the senior level.
“I have clients all around the country,” she said, adding that she helps them develop their soft skills, deliverability approach, and navigating their career.
She has sometimes seen African Americans not always understanding how to move up within the organization and use their voice in her 12 years of experience. A lot of that is changing now for the better.
“We are in a whole different climate since George Floyd and … there is more of an empowerment,” she said. “This is an opportunity where people are listening, more organizations are listening … and starting to become more transparent about where opportunities are and where they lack. Leaders are seizing on this moment to hold not just organizations accountable but be (preparing) to take advantage of opportunities to come.”
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