Ask The Corporate Latina

Last May, I spoke at the HACE Career Conference in Houston. HACE which stands for the Hispanic Alliance for Career Advancement, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of Latino professionals. I serve on that Board as well.

I spoke on the topic of “Latinos in Corporate America- Understanding The Rules: Achieving Victory”. The presentation was videotaped and after some work, we divided up the one hour presentation in small 5 to 9 minutes video clips. I will be posting these clips on my blog every week in succesive orders so if you are interested, you get to see the entire presentation or if you rather see only a portion you can go directly to that clip.

The clips will be posted in this order:
Clip 001: What is The Corporate Latina?
Clip 002: The Rules
Clip 003: Corporate Facts: Obtaining the “Right” Preparation
Clip 004: Statistics: Information on Latinos in Business
Clip 005: Statistics of Latinos in Corporate America
Clip 006: Latino Wallet Power and Corporate Business
Clip 007: Challenges of Latinos in Corporate America
Clip 008: Latina Challenges in Upper Levels
Clip 009: Executive Branding
Clip 014: Opponents and Sense of Timing

Here is the first Clip. Please let me know what you think!

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Just recently, I delivered a speech at the HOPE National Latina Action Day Conference in Los Angeles, CA. This was a wonderful conference with over 850 women in attendance! It was such an impressive group of women that it almost brought tears to my eyes and I felt an immense pride swelling in my chest. The organization kindly asked me to help them unveil the results of a ground breaking study ” Missing in California- Latinas in Corporations”. As this topic is just right up my alley, I gladly accepted. The study results showed that of the 400 corporations that are headquartered in California, none have a Latina at the C-Level. With California being the most Hispanic populous state in the country, those are certainly hard facts to digest. Sadly enough, the statistics are not much better for the rest of the country. Read more…

Sponsors? Wait, I have heard of mentors, but sponsors?  What is that and why do I need one?

This is a common response that I get whenever I counsel corporate Latinas and other women executives about the need to have a sponsor. I, like them, was not aware of the concept of a “sponsor” in corporate America until actually quite recently when I was working at a major Fortune 100 company and someone made a reference to my “sponsor”. At that point, I knew that the colleague was referring to another high level executive that I had the fortune of developing a good relationship with and who I knew had made some phone calls on my behalf and had recommended me for some high visibility projects. I thought that was quite nice on his part and obviously I had communicated my gratitude, but it wasn’t until my colleague referred to him as my “sponsor” that I actually started to think about this issue. Of course, I had a mentor, but my mentor had never made any phone calls on my behalf ( at least not that I knew of ) or volunteered me to work on a major project. For the most part they were not in a position to do so or more likely that simply was not their role. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that my mentor was not hugely important- she was- but the sponsor was different. Read more…

Hello corporate women!

I am a Latina whose passion is to help other Latinas and women of color unlock the door to the corporate suite.  I want to share my knowledge and experience with you, the ”ins and outs” of corporate America, how to navigate the corporate landscape successfully and to understand that in corporate America good is never enough and that it takes much more to succeed in climbing the corporate ladder than being a good worker. Please visit my official website where you can find more information on my speaking and coaching career.

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