Harnessing the Power of

Underrepresented Leaders

Untapped Leadership:

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Untapped Leadership: Broadening Perspectives on Bookshelves

The book explores more expansive and connected definitions of leadership within marginalized communities. As a result of white-dominant leadership culture, leaders of color have navigated and even thrived in spaces not built by and for them, exemplifying a style of leadership that has remained unnamed yet highly effective.

Listen to Jenny’s intro of the booK

Untapped Leadership centers on the under-recognized and overlooked leadership strategies of leaders of color, serving as the first to do so in this genre and broadening the lens through which we identify effective frameworks.

Leadership can be akin to a pilot's role in flying a plane.

Critical in fulfilling a purpose, seemingly tenuous in moments, consequential in many respects. Unsurprisingly, no one pays too much attention to the pilot who lands the plane in perfect weather. While, yes, leadership likely exists in that uneventful cockpit, the leadership that should be celebrated, studied, and considered exemplary are in the moments a pilot successfully lands a plane when the conditions are fraught with difficulties.

What would it look like to learn from the leadership of those who lead when their conditions are fraught?
When the environment is not ideal?
When decisions are riskier?
When they carry more significant societal burdens, and yet they still lead?

Untapped Leadership:

Highlights the limited and limiting nature of current leadership theories and frameworks due to dominating perspectives. Through connections between the development of prominent frameworks and the societal contexts of their time, you will journey through a narrative that illustrates a very narrow and exclusionary view of leadership.

Names, amplifies, and celebrate the unique leadership capacities and contributions of leaders of color and their often-intersecting marginalized identities.
Offers a reframing of leadership practices for all readers to access, whether or not they hold marginalized identities. Untapped Leadership's offers lessons grounded in overlooked leadership that are lessons for everyone-- from readers beginning their leadership journeys to those leading teams and organizations through complex and fast-changing environments.

Testimonials

“For anyone who is committed to inclusive leadership and building thriving and diverse organizations, this book is essential reading. Vazquez-Newsum offers critical perspectives from leaders of color too long overlooked in the field. Blending real leader experiences with tangible tools for all to learn from, Untapped Leadership should be on every leader's bookshelf.”
– Deanna Singh, author of Actions Speak Louder: A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming an Inclusive Workplace
“As a black woman in a leadership role, I have taken many courses and read several books on being an effective leader while aiming to remain true to my authentic self. However, I often found myself not truly connecting to the material presented. Untapped Leadership does an amazing job on delving into the BIPOC leader and the idiosyncrasies of leadership as a person of color.”
– Jaccara Cadet Smith, Managing Director, Ernst and Young, LLP
“Untapped Leadership is a refreshing and powerful take on why we must rethink leadership. Readers will appreciate Vazquez-Newsum’s ability to speak truth to power and name how race, gender, and other social identities can strengthen our understanding and enactment of leadership. Untapped Leadership is a must-read for anyone seeking to lead in more effective, humanizing, and socially just ways.”
– Dr. Bianca Baldridge, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Author of Reclaiming Community: Race and the Uncertain Future of Youth Work
“Vazquez-Newsum’s pioneering work to bring visibility to BIPOC leadership is long overdue. The amplification of BIPOC leaders has been a void for far too long. We cannot build competencies that drive inclusive behaviors and outcomes within a field that is exclusive.”
– Natalie Samarjian,President and CEO, Coro Southern California; Commissioner, City of Los Angeles
"I finished reading the book while in Baltimore. I felt seen. I felt understood. I was reading the words from the little voice in my head. It’s always been our moment, but Untapped Leadership makes it plain that BIPOC leaders are the future. We are what’s needed today, tomorrow, and always. We are the (secret) sauce for leadership reimagined."
– Dr. Nomsa Khalfani, Co-CEO/Chief Strategy + Equity Officer, Essential Access Health
"Untapped Leadership must take space on every leader's bookshelf. It is unequivocally the book that leaders of color have been waiting for that see us as who we are. Vazquez -Newsum explores the beauty and challenges of leaders of color like no other leadership expert with unapologetic honesty. It was truly powerful and affirming to read."
– Reena Hajat Carroll, MSW, Executive Director, California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ)

Untapped Leadership provides a necessary jostle to this body of work, offering a critical eye given the dominance of only certain perspectives deemed the authority on leadership.