Career Diversity

Real talk about diversity and careers: The things you want to talk about at work but can't...and probably shouldn't.
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This annual Guide describes diversity programs at 500 major corporations--diversity internship and entry-level programs or efforts; profiles of diversity team members, part-time/flex-time options, family leave policy, quantitative information regarding diversity staffing levels, and special programs or historical details.





From Publishers Weekly
After being passed over twice for advancement, Wyche—now president of U.S. operations for Pitney Bowes Management Services—took a hard look at himself and began to consciously develop his approach, performance and image to better position himself for success. Aimed primarily at helping minorities advance their careers, his book highlights the 12 key lessons he learned—including the importance of personal branding, visibility and staying current as well as identifying potential career killers. Each chapter elaborates on a different skill while relating how Wyche and others managed to overcame specific obstacles. The author also includes useful coaching tips, suggesting employees try to meet with their boss's boss at least once a year, become active in an industry organization and always have an intelligent, thoughtful question to ask. Particularly helpful are the sections on business writing, the five top skills required for senior leadership and the qualities of a good presentation. While Wyche directs his lessons at minorities, who frequently lack mentors in the workplace, his sound advice will prove valuable to anyone looking to take ownership of their career advancement. (July) ""
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Product Description
A no-nonsense guide for minorities in business who want to make it to senior managementIn recent decades, corporate America has gotten better at recruiting minority talent. But despite their education and hard work, too many African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans still find unique obstacles on the path to senior management. And there are too few minority mentors available to help them understand and overcome these challenges. Keith R. Wyche, a division president at a Fortune 500 company, is the perfect mentor for ambitious minority businesspeople at all levels. His book is filled with thought-provoking insights and practical advice based on his own experiences and those of the many people he has counseled. He discusses the importance of: * Understanding corporate culture -- and the impact it has on your career* Being visible -- because you can't get ahead if nobody knows who you are* Staying current -- why minorities must be continuous learnersGood Is Not Enough also includes anecdotes from prominent CEOs such as Ken Chenault of American Express, Richard Parsons of Time Warner, and Alwyn Lewis of Kmart.

Jim Collins, already established as one of the most influential management consultants, further established his credibility with the wildly popular Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don’t, originally published in 2001. The book went on to be one of the bestsellers in the genre, and it is now widely regarded as a modern classic of management theory.

Collins takes up a daunting challenge in the book: identifying and evaluating the factors and variables that allow a small fraction of companies to make the transition from merely good to truly great. ‘Great,’ an admittedly subjective term, is operationally defined according to a number of metrics, including, specifically, financial performance that exceeded the market average by several orders of magnitude over a sustained period of time. Using these criteria, Collins and his research team exhaustively catalogued the business literature, identifying a handful of companies that fulfilled their predetermined criteria for greatness. Then, the defining characteristics that differentiated these ‘great’ firms from their competitors were quantified and analyzed.

The resulting data are presented in Good to Great in compelling detail. Over the course of 9 chapters, Collins addresses a number of management, personnel, and operational practices, behaviors, and attitudes that are both conducive and antithetical to the good-to-great transition. One overarching theme that links together virtually all of Collins’ arguments is the need to define a narrowly focused objective and field of competency and then focus all of the company’s resources toward that area of strength. Repeatedly, Collins warns that straying too far from a company’s established strengths is inimical to the attainment of greatness. Finally, Collins links the findings of Good to Great to the conclusions he reached in his previous book, Built to Last, which focused on the factors that define companies that survive in the long-term, meshing both sets of results into an overarching framework for enduring success.

Read the rest of the summary here...