Synopsis

Based on more than a thousand in-depth interviews with black executives as well as on the authors' own extensive experience in training leaders— and as leaders themselves— Leading in Black and White reveals the everyday reality for African American executives in the predominantly white world of American business, education, and government. Ancella Livers and Keith Caver— from the highly acclaimed Center for Creative Leadership— give a clear picture to all executives of the challenges black leaders face and offer solid recommendations to both white and black managers on how to work together more effectively.

Library Journal

The authors, long-standing cofacilitators at the Center for Creative Leadership's African American Leadership Program, draw upon their own expertise and past studies conducted by the CCL to produce this insightful study of the misunderstandings and miscommunications that hinder effective interactions in the diversified workplace. The work is grounded in 39 in-depth interviews conducted by the CCL from 1996 to 1997, a survey of 270 African American professionals conducted in 1999-2000, and the authors' own in-depth interviews of another 20 black professionals between 2000 and 2001. The authors focus on six commonalities shared by the interviewees: a distinctive perception of identity, feelings of responsibility for other blacks, heightened attention to race and gender, challenges in networking, a need for mentoring, and approaches to office politics. By conducting these interviews, the authors hope to expand our understanding of racial differences in the workplace and to suggest what can be done about them. Recommended for public libraries with a business clientele as well as for academic libraries with programs in business management.-Rona Ostrow, Lehman Coll. Lib., CUNY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

Ancella B. Livers is a manager of Individual Leadership Development for the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). In this role, she manages and trains in several programs and designs and delivers custom programs for clients in public, private, and non-profit sectors. Livers, a former business journalist, is a certified executive coach and feedback specialist who has published and presented widely on the role of race in the workplace.

Keith A. Caver is the director of Client and Assessment Services for CCL, where he is responsible for client-management and assessment processing activities. Caver is a core trainer for several CCL programs, delivers numerous client-specific programs, and is a presenter on leadership issues ranging from diversity to change management. He is a former U.S. Air Force officer and a certified executive coach and feedback specialist.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCLR) is an international, nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, CCL conducts research, produces publications and assessment tools, and offers a variety of educational programs. For the second consecutive time, CCL was ranked number one for Leadership in the Executive Education Special Report in BusinessWeek magazine and was ranked seventh overall among the top international providers of non-degree executive education programs in the 2002 Financial Times survey. For more information, visit CCL's Web site at www.ccl.org.