Salsa, Soul, and Spirit

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 FundPreface
Special Contributions: Profiles of Leaders
Introduction: Diversity Is Transforming Leadership

PART ONE
A New Social Covenant
Principle 1: Sankofa
Learn from the Past
Principle 2: I to We
From Individualism to Collective Identity
Principle 3: Mi Casa Es Su Casa
A Spirit of Generosity

PART TWO
Leadership Styles in Communities of Color
Principle 4: A Leader Among Equals
Community-Conferred Leadership
Principle 5: Leaders as Guardians of Public Values
A Tradition of Activism
Principle 6: Leaders as Community Stewards
Working for the Common Goal

PART THREE
Creating the Circle of Leadership
Principle 7: The Seventh-Generation Rule
Intergenerational Leadership
Principle 8: All My Relatives
La Familia, the Village, the Tribe
Principle 9: Gracias
Gratitude, Hope, and Forgiveness

PART FOUR
Leadership for a Multicultural Age
Making the Commitment: Personal, Organizational, and Political
Notes
Index
About the AuthorJuana Bordas is president of Mestiza Leadership International and a trustee of the International Leadership Association. She served as board vice president of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. She is a founder of Mi Casa Resource Center for Women and founding president/CEO of the National Hispana Leadership Institute.