Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age

By Juana Bordas

Book Overview

A practical guide to leadership in America's ever-increasingly diverse workforce, featuring approaches from non-European and non-white communities.

Our nation is quickly becoming a multicultural cornucopia. Tapping the potential of our changing demographics requires a leadership approach that resonates with our growing diversity. In Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, Juana Bordas shows how incorporating Latino, African American, and American Indian approaches to leadership into the mainstream has the potential to strengthen leadership and inspire today's ethnically rich workforce.

Bordas identifies nine leadership principles common to all three cultures. Principles deeply rooted in each culture's values and developed under the most trying conditions. Using a lively blend of personal reflections, interviews with leaders, historical background, and insightful analysis, she shows how these principles were developed and illustrates the creative ways they've been put into practice. Bordas weaves these principles together into a multicultural model that offers a more flexible and inclusive way to lead.

Multicultural leadership resonates with many cultures and encourages diverse people to actively engage, contribute and tap their potential. In a globalized economy, success for leaders will rest on their ability to shift to a multicultural approach. Salsa, Soul, and Spirit provides conceptual and practical guidelines for beginning that process. The revised and updated second edition speaks to how the Millennial generation value diversity and resonate with the leadership principles in communities of color.

"This wonderful book made me want to dance with joy. In Western society, we suffer from a loss of community and spirit because we're so disconnected. American Indian, Latino and African American cultures have never forgotten that we need to be together, and that diversity is not a problem, but a blessing. May this book lead you to discover what we've been missing--each other." --Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science

"Juana Bordas has broken new ground. She has documented and analyzed the effective and unique practices of Latino, Black, and American Indian leaders. Salsa, Soul and Spirit is a fascinating read that shows us the road to leadership for a multicultural America." --John Echohawk, Pawnee, executive director, The Native American Rights Fund

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1609941179
• ISBN13: 9781609941178
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

What good leadership really is

This is a wonderful book with several important dimensions. It tells the story of the author, a Latina who emigrated from Nicaragua to the United States as a child, and succeeded in American society while staying close to her ethnic roots. It also tells the stories of Latino, Black, and American Indian leaders. Most important, it provides background on the history, faith, and values of Latino (salsa), Black (soul), and American Indian (spirit) leadership traditions. The principles Bordas draws from these leadership traditions are principles that our country badly needs today. They remind us that leadership is conferred by the community, and leaders are expected to work for the common good, not their personal gain. Leaders should also be guardians of public values. They need to learn from the past, honor the collective identity, and promote a spirit of generosity, gratitude, hope, and forgiveness. This book will help the read understand the Latino, Black, and American Indian leadership traditions. Even better, it will help the reader understand what good leadership really is.

Essential Leadership Principles for a Multicultural World

Salsa, Soul, and Spirit is one of the most timely, relevant and up-lifting books I've read in recent memory. It should be read and studied by everyone from the President down to the grassroots community activist. In a country deeply divided by red state/blue state animosities, culture wars and "hot button" issues like immigration policy, Bordas shows us the way forward. She argues persuasively that the idea of a New Social Covenant and the leadership practices summarized in her Eight Principles of Multicultural Leadership are not theoritical and optional but are essential if America is to fully address its plethora of social ills and reach its full potential. After reading this book my concept of "leadership" will never be the same. Bordas' simple yet profound insight is that all positive social change begins with leadership and her choice of examples from the Black, Latino and American Indian communities is truly enlightening.

A Must-Read for Today's Leader

Juana Bordas' Salsa, Soul and Spirit belongs on the book shelf of every forward-thinking leader, management expert and leadership trainer. In compelling, personal language, she makes the case for the development of new leadership practices that reflect the realities of today's multicultural society. In challenging times when it is easy to feel discouraged by the divisions and "isms" of politics and social ills, the author shines a light on a new path of hope and collaboration. This book should find its way quickly into the required reading lists of leadership programs across the country and beyond.

From Margaret J. Wheatley - Leadership and the New Science

Praise for Salsa, Soul, and Spirit "This wonderful book made me want to dance with joy. In Western society, we suffer from a loss of community and spirit because we're so disconnected. American Indian, Latino and African American cultures have never forgotten that we need to be together, and that diversity is not a problem, but a blessing. May this book lead you to discover what we've been missing-- each other." Product Link: Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age

Refreshing, realistic perspective on leadership today.

This is an amazing book, not just for corporate types and CEOs but those who want and need a better perspective on the elements of diversity already at work in our lives. Brava!! Run out and get copies for yourself, family, friends, libraries and workplaces.