Career Coaching for Leaders of Color
Who’s Got Your Back? (Part 1)
Once upon a time, many years ago, I was a newly promoted manager in a Fortune 500 company headquartered on the East Coast. As an ambitious young woman of color, I was on the lookout for a mentor who would take me under their wing, show me the secrets to organizational success and send me on my way to corporate glory. I had also heard that the best, most effective mentors were “people who look like me”, which put me in a quandary: If I was going to find someone who would introduce me to the lofty world of strategy and influence, who looked like me, I was going to be reduced to talking to myself.
Perhaps you face the same situation. Perhaps your organization is not (yet) a paragon of virtuous diversity. You may never find “that someone” who looks like you, shares your experiences and is vested in providing their institutional knowledge and support to the next generation of leaders. But there are three especially important people who can partner with you in your career development. — By Lisa Bynum Walton, MA, SPHR, Career Management Consultant
Unconscious Bias: Recognizing the Challenges
Research confirms that only 8% of people of color have a mentor / sponsor vs. 13% of their white counterparts.
OneCareerCoach coaches help clients to leverage skills, communicate effectively and navigate successfully in multi-cultural environments. Effective coaching experiences are built on trust between the coachee and their coaching champion. It begins with confidential conversations in safe spaces about career successes, challenges, accomplishments, mistakes goals and action plans that help close the gaps between people with varying styles of leadership.
Explore How Leaders Navigate Bias in the Workplace
We assist multicultural leaders in enhancing their skills to optimize business results, understanding their particular challenges and needs. Coaching clients will take a battery of assessments to determine their strengths and development opportunities. The coach then meets weekly or bi-weekly with the client to motivate, challenge and provide feedback. Clients using the results of assessments, and with the assistance with their coach, then craft an action plan to build on their development needs navigate their career path, recognizing the challenges of conscious and unconscious bias.
Our experienced coaches are skilled at helping clients work through communications strategies that define communication styles, barriers, development opportunities, and provide honest, feedback based on the client’s skills assessment results, how they want to position themselves and achieve the goals that they set for their own professional development.
For more information contact OneCareerCoach today.
