Summary

American Black women bring different interpersonal leadership styles to Fortune and non-Fortune 500 organizations. Their interpersonal leadership styles are developed at home, within their community, through their educational experiences, and within society. They bring unique perspectives to the workplace. Organizations that recognize, respect, and value their different viewpoints have leaders who are contributing to the financial growth of their organizations. American Black women have career capital to offer to organizations through their self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and the leadership strategies that they understand and apply in the workplace. In addition they bring high educational achievement, practical skills, and analytical abilities that are useful when leading others. They bring a persistent work ethic, support for education and leadership development, and an enduring spirit of cooperation in the midst of undeserved, personal challenges to the workplace. They solve problems, help others succeed, enhance the workplace environment and organization culture, and help their organizations maintain competitive advantage in an evolving global economy.

Executive leadership should lead the effort to enhance the role of American Black women within their organizations. Change begins at the top and integrating American Black women into executive leadership roles is a change initiative that must be strategically developed and managed through understanding who they are. This book provides a foundation upon which individuals and organizations can begin the change initiative through the use of the Five Values model as a career management system for developing and enhancing the careers of American Black women who are leading within and want to lead organizations.