Immigration and Hispanics in Corporate America

Below is one long blog post that provides a high level summary of what I stand for concerning SHPE and a couple of topics of interest.

Immigration Reform
I support all the issues facing our members and my family (my daughter-in-law is an illegal alien as was my father) including the dream act and increasing visas for students from Latin American countries just to name a couple of topics.  However as one candidate put it, SHPE is currently nowhere close to being able to influence this topic from a national organization perspective.  That is why we added the topic of political influence to our national strategic plan (goals 2f, 4d,4e,4f). We can and should encourage grass roots political efforts by our members but because of our status as a non-profit organization we tend to be limited to what we can do because of laws governing such actions.  However, there are things we can and will do to drive these issues if I am National President. I have been part of other non-profit organizations that not only lobby but publish a list of recommended legislation that the organization supports and encourages to be passed.  I would start with that.  However, for this organization to have an power behind such publications and statements, the organization must grow.  Simply put, politicians only listen to voters and organizations with a large block of voters.  We're not there, but that is why I believe it vital that we increase the membership and influence of the organization.

Summary: I will help increase our membership so that we can increase our influence on the politics of our nation. I will implement a process for SHPE to publish a formal press statement on all political issues that we have an interest in stating our stance and support or non-support for each topic.


Hispanic Population in Corporate America
When you look at the make up of corporate america and fortune 500 STEM companies it is no secret that the diversity in the leadership, advanced technical positions, and executive positions do not mirror that of the current U.S. population. That is why SHPE has adopted a strategy (goal 4) to ensure that "The Hispanic population at all levels in STEM-related areas of corporate America, government and academia
will mirror the United States’ population."  So how does SHPE do this?  It starts with developing our members so that they will be become the managers, leaders, and executives in these companies.  But the part that comes next is the part no one wants to talk about... helping our members break into the "good ol' boy network."  This centers around the fact that unless someone in leadership likes or believes in you it is next to impossible to move up in your department, sector or corporation.  That's where my strategy to develop more company based chapters and engage employee resource groups (ERGs) for company development, mentoring, and networking come into play. SHPE can help our members either break into the network or create their own network that bypasses it all together. Below is a summary of these strategies:

Strategy 1: Developing Our Members:
If you have ever been to my "The Complete SHPE Leader" workshop, you would have seen that the path to promotion is much  more than just communication and project management.  The professional development strategy that I will implement as national president is centered around a complete cycle of skills.  This strategy starts with a program that I developed for region 5 called the Foundations of Leadership Program (FLP).  This was a core set of classes and mentoring sessions that were centered around communication; presentation skills; project management; planning, vision and innovation; marketing; time management; emotional intelligence; ethics; and leadership initiative. Once a member completed these courses and mentoring, they would become a SHPE certified professional leader.  The is the first phase that focused on entry level professionals and provided them the tools to quickly be successful in their companies once they were hired.  The next phase of my strategy is set up around our MGT strategy of supporting our members once they are in leadership and management roles with skill enhancements in these same areas but more importantly with senior manager and executive mentoring.  The final stage is centered around an executive level strategy set up around our ELI strategy of enhancing executive thinking and aptitude to position our members for high level executive roles and help them open the door within their companies to become high level executives.  The key to all this is implementation.  That is where we have failed in the past few years by failing to secure funding for MGT and ELI.  This past year we were able to develop a basic model for MGT that I will use as a basis for implementing MGT and possibly ELI.  I will also make it a goal for the CEO and staff to secure funding for these events every year so that we will never go a year without implementing these professional programs.

Strategy 2: Breaking into the "Network" with Company Chapters:
At my company we established the first ever company based chapter that has allowed our employees to get leadership development training that directly influences their position at work.  When I was chapter president, I established in our first year an executive advisory board and executive sponsor position that gives our board leaders direct access to the executives in our company. In addition, I was able to establish a formal mentoring relationship with executives of our company and the members of the SHPE board of directors.  When members received recognition from the company for their work at SHPE, we have executives recognize employees in a venue where their immediate supervisors participate. In many ways our SHPE chapter has acted as a leadership development program for our members helping them gain the leadership training that the company is not able to provide to every employee.  This is one of the driving factors has made our chapter national chapter of the year three times.  Members are not only motivated to make SHPE successful but can also see a direct benefit in the job for the work they do in SHPE.  In addition, we have now started engaging our Employee Resource Group (ERG) to create executive level mentoring for our members and will be establishing programs specifically to help members move up the management and technical leadership path much faster.

Strategy 3: Breaking into the "Network" through ERGs:
So what does a member do when a company based chapter is not possible?  My strategy is for SHPE to directly engage employee resource groups (ERGs) for our member development, recognition, and career growth.  When I have engaged ERG leaders from across the country many have stated that they are struggling to gain employee participation and retain Hispanic talent while others ERGs have claimed that they are extremely successful.  That is why I developed the ERG business plan for SHPE that engages and brings ERGs together through SHPE so that they can discuss best practices and can meet the needs of the SHPE member.  The plan is to launch this this year at the SHPE national conference with a set of workshops for ERG leaders and SHPE members.  The goal will be to bring these individuals together to discuss and develop the plans to make ERGs and SHPE members successful in their companies.

Summary:  In order to change the make up of corporations we need to develop and train our members but more importantly break into the networks that will help them get promoted.  I will do this by augmenting and expanding our professional development strategy centered around programs and mentoring. I will also move to establish more company based chapters and launch our ERG program so that members can both change lives and develop their careers at the same time.

My Best,

Michael Gutierrez
www.michaelgutierrez.net
michael4prez@gmail.com