What does this mean exactly?

It means that these companies have programs, policies, and provide resources that are beneficial to multicultural women in the workplace. Organizations making this list have demonstrated at understanding of the unique issues facing professional women of color, whether through the creation of a dedicated employee resource group or the development of specific initiatives or programming to help with women of color’s professional growth.

In conjunction with this Best Companies issue, there is also a national conference in New York City for multicultural women and supporters July 27-28, 2010.

Here’s the list of the companies, in alphabetical order):

AllState
American Electric Power
American Express
Burger King
Cisco
Citi
Deloitte
General Mills
Goldman Sachs
Health Care Service Corp.
IBM
JPMorgan Chase
KPMG
Kraft Foods
McDonald’s USA
MetLife
PepsiCo
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Procter & Gamble
Sodexo
State Farm Insurance
Verizon Communications
Wal-Mart

Read the full article at WorkingMother.com

Women and minority entrepreneurs, who together own more than 10 million U.S. businesses, have access to more resources than they might realize. These range from business planning advice to certifications aimed at helping entrepreneurs win government and big-company contracts. Help is offered by myriad groups, from professional associations to local municipalities.

via How Minority-Owned Businesses Can Catch a Break – BusinessWeek.

Photo credit: umjanedoan (Flickr)

Catalyst has released a new study, Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms, as part of its Women of Color in Professional Services Series on professional women of color. This excellent research was done by Deepali Bagati, Ph.D., Director, Research at Catalyst.  While the findings won’t be surprising to women of color attorneys who have been employed at large law firms, they are very much worth noting.  The research determined that women of color generally experienced more stereotyping on the basis of race and gender than their white female counterparts, the feeling of being an “outsider”, diminished professional development opportunities, and a lack of candid feedback.

To work toward resolving these issues, the report recommends that law firms raise awareness of the unique challenges facing women of color attorneys, provide diversity training and education, provide discussion spaces between women of color attorneys and their firm leadership, and increase accountability for the development and advancement of women of color attorneys.

Here are links to the press release and the study.

It’s sort of a two-fer: a social network for career-minded women as well as a resource for women seeking new employment opportunities.

In addition to the site, you can follow Excelle on Twitter here for updates, or joined their Linkedin group.

Photo credit: Muffett (Flickr)

These differences may be manifested through your skin color, hair texture, physical ability, or, depending on the environment, your gender.”  Here’s the story I referenced in my earlier post:

I once read a story of a Black female architect who (I think) was the only Black woman at her firm. She was a very timely employee, while one of her co-workers, who happened to be a White male employee, was habitually late.  One day, for some reason, she  gave him a ride in to work and he was late (as usual), making them both late. She was called into the supervisor’s office and warned about being late, though she had never been late before. The supervisor didn’t even notice that her colleague was late—and they arrived together!

Of course, hypervisibility isn’t limited to women of African descent; it also applies to anyone who appears different, whether of Asian, South Asian, Latino, Middle Eastern, Native American, or multi-ethnic backgrounds.

In light of this, below are 4 ways to manage hypervisibility:

1. Don’t be surprised. Many women of color are surprised and angry when they are singled out at work, for whatever reason.  The first step in managing hypervisibility is to realize that it happens. It’s not a myth or a fabrication. It happens regularly to people who stand out (not just women). Being prepared to handle hypervisibility dramatically increases the likelihood that you will be successful in managing it.  This isn’t an invitation to focus on the negatives, but simply to accept the reality. Then you can get to the business of dealing with it in a way that won’t hinder your career advancement.

2.  Strike a balance. Since you are already noticeable to others, pay careful attention to situations where you stand out more.  Take meetings, for example. One easy way to manage hypervisibility is to  avoid taking up major airtime at meetings. Express your thoughts and opinions succinctly, and make sure they add value.  This is not to suggest that you cannot advance your ideas, but if people notice you more, they notice when you talk more. So make sure what you have to say has worth and isn’t just “businessspeak.”  Notice that this doesn’t change the fact that you stand out—that’s because we can’t (and shouldn’t) change that. Rather, we focus on making sure your visibility works to your advantage.

3.  Choose your battles and your weapons. In any workplace, you don’t want to always appear to be in some kind of battle (even if that’s how it feels most of the time).  This means you are going to have to let some things/issues/matters go. Be prepared to choose which battles are worth fighting (hint: those that get you new responsibilities, a promotion, or a raise) and ignore the ones that just aren’t worth it (read: gossip, petty infighting, and did I mention gossip?).  Choosing your weapons means just that. Managing conflicts in person are always preferable to handling things electronically—from whence they can be spread around to everyone.

4.  Adopt a “tempered visibility” approach. Decide where you are going to be seen, and be sure it’s not everywhere.  I know a number of people that are “scenesters.”  They have to be at every new or hot event, which is fine if you’re a socialite or fashionista. But in a workplace context, it’s probably better to decide what you want to be known for and then be seen doing those things.  In this way you “temper” your visibility, just by not being at everything.  Bonus: this provides an easy way to filter invitations: I want to be known for industry expertise, so I’ll attend that important industry conference. And vice versa: I don’t want to be known as a gossip so I’ll stay away from the “gossip table” in the cafeteria.

Treating hypervisibility seriously, and taking steps to manage it is one of the smartest career strategies you can employ.

Photo credit: Maui unsettled (Flickr)

Most importantly, manners, etiquette and protocol make others comfortable and enable smooth interactions–both of which are indispensable to good relationship building. And as I’ve often said, relationships are critical to women of color’s professional and personal advancement because of our natural distance from the predominantly white male power structure.

Understanding these graces also serves as a point of entry or access into certain social circles where such behaviors are rigorously observed. Once you reach a certain level of prominence (and often well before that), a lack of knowledge concerning these social matters may (and often will) cause you to be viewed negatively. Don’t think that these things are insignificant, because they’re not.

A word of caution: if you are thinking about ignoring this post because you haven’t had alot of exposure to these kinds of issues, or because you think this stuff doesn’t matter, think again.  The interesting thing about manners, etiquette, and protocol is that you don’t get to make the rules–they’ve existed for many years (in some cases centuries)!  It’s easy to ignore something that you don’t understand, but it doesn’t help you grow.

That said, I am no Mrs. Letitia Baldridge–the famed former Social Secretary for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when she was First Lady, and an extraordinarily elegant woman in her own right–but below are a few definitions you may find helpful from the New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd ed.):

Manners generally refers to “social behavior or habits.”

Etiquette is “the customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group.”

Protocol refers to “the official procedure or system of rules governing affairs of state or diplomatic occasions.”

I realize these terms are used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences: for example, a young man opening the car door for a young woman on a date would be considered good manners (a social custom), while the seating arrangements of the Supreme Court Justices is a matter of etiquette (specific rules for a group of judges/attorneys), and the manner in which Ambassadors enter the U.N. General Assembly is an issue of protocol (involvement of diplomats).

It would be impossible for me to adequately describe the various requirements for manners, etiquette, and protocol. What I can do is provide you with resources that you can use for self-assessment and personal improvement.  Below is a listing of books and courses that may be helpful to those of you who are interested:

BOOKS

New Manners for New Times -Letitia Baldridge

Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Freshly Updated – Judith Martin

Tiffany Table Manners for Teenagers (get the kids started early!)

COURSES

Protocol School of Washington (DC) – offers etiquette and protocol training

(You may also want to do a Google search for a local etiquette school)

I hope these resources are helpful to you, and I wish you all the best in your efforts.

Also, I still owe you a post on dealing with hypervisibility–next post, definitely!

Photo Credit: aloshbennett

I’ve embedded the slides below for you to view.

Photo Credit: Russell J. Smith

Research on professional women of color often describes our “invisibility” in the workplace. But what about when the reverse is true?  What happens when we find ourselves overly visible—when everything we say or do seems to draw extra scrutiny from colleagues and supervisors?

It’s called hypervisibility.

Hypervisibility is a common experience for professional women of color, and it refers to the additional scrutiny that you receive because you appear different from others.  These differences may be manifested through your skin color, hair texture, physical ability, or, depending on the environment, your gender.

The end result of hypervisibility is that your behaviors are magnified in the sight of others because you are noticeably different from others.  I once read a story of a Black female architect who (I think) was the only Black woman at her firm. She was a very timely employee, while one of her co-workers, who happened to be a White male employee, was habitually late.  One day, for some reason, she  gave him a ride in to work and he was late (as usual), making them both late. She was called into the supervisor’s office and warned about being late, though she had never been late before. The supervisor didn’t even notice that her colleague was late—and they arrived together!

At a macro level, hypervisibility leads to the perception that diversity is no longer necessary in the workplace. Often people take more notice of those who are visibly different and so erroneously believe that there is more diversity in the workplace than is actually present.  This is a challenge for professional women of color, but also for diversity practitioners as they continue to educate others on the necessity for diversity programs and initiatives.

So, no, it’s not just you. People do notice more of what you do at work when you appear different than others. But there are ways to manage hypervisibility. I’ll share some tips on developing a tempered visibility strategy in my next post.

Photo credit: shiladsen (Flickr)

There’s a really interesting article on the challenges facing professors of color on Chronicle.com with some important references to the challenges facing women of color in the academic world. I hope we will see more articles on women of color academics—they are a largely invisible group, even in diversity discussions.