At the consultancy where she used to work, Karla Martin, Google’s Director of Global Business Strategy, watched a partner repeatedly offer the lead role on new business to a white male whom she had previously led on a massive cost-reduction project for a multimillion-dollar client. “That partner simply couldn’t remember that it was my leadership, my work — aided of course by the team and that one guy (we’ll call him Jim) — and that I’d been instrumental in hiring Jim and promoting him while I was leading it,” she says. “He’d look me straight in the eye and say, ‘Why don’t we put Jim on this new account? He did such a great job with that cost reduction project.’”
Qualified Black Women Are Being Held Back from Management
Examining a study of race, gender, and leadership
June 11, 2015
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Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to build a better, more just workplace.