Managing a Diverse Team

This post is about an interview Colombian and USA actor, Mr. John Leguizamo, gave to ABC News Prime in 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT3xiQK-NTk). This actor is part of an ethnic minority, the Hispanics. He was born on July 22^nd, 1960, in Colombia, and moved to the United States as a child, so he is also a US citizen. He is a well-known Hollywood star, mainly known for his role as an actor and comedian, although he is also a producer of both movies and documentaries. Moreover, he is also an activist who raises his voice against discriminatory practices against his fellow Latinos and Hispanics.

 The workplace challenges prompted by his ethnic group identity this professional actor has had to overcome to make it in Hollywood are several, as he pointed out throughout the interview. Some of said challenges, for instance, comprise poverty, prejudice, immigration, lack of roles being created for actors such as himself to really have an opportunity to shine and demonstrate his skills.

The interview went on to let him further express how this movie he directed in 2021, based on a true story, goes to show how many gifted Hispanics simply are never given the chance to pass a casting process, or how they are not even nurtured by higher powers, preventing them from climbing their way up.

He explained how this Hispanic professor from Florida, Mr. Mario Martinez, struggled and succeeded big time by, precisely, nurturing, coaching, supporting, and encouraging a group of Latino students back in 1998 all the way until they became USA National Chess Champions, which is something he was able to portray in his film “Critical Thinking”.

Leguizamo elaborates some more on his criticism on how he feels like he and his fellow Latinos / Hispanics are living in what he deems a cultural apartheid, totally neglected, despite said minority group accounting for 25% of the U.S. box office.

          Some strategies I could propose for Mr. Leguizamo to try to help him overcome some of the challenges faced in the workplace are, for instance, encourage him not to so easily accept uneven distributions of decision-making power and access to perks and benefits, but instead to raise his voice and let producers, directors and even the audience know his people are not going to allow them to abuse those powers.

            Another strategy would be to make sure in his acting performance contracts to include a variable compensation component based precisely on the degree of his performance, making sure his efforts are duly recognized monetarily at the very least.

Another strategy would be to practice his assertiveness skills, in a such a way that, without him being disrespectful, he learns how to raise his voice to an extent that nobody dares crossing the line or abusing his kindness.

Yet another strategy that could be suggested to Mr. Leguizamo would be to encourage him to work on his uncertainty avoidance skills, given that his career is somewhat unstable, and even more so in his case given the minority related issue, hence it would be in his best interest to acquire some skills that deal with uncertainty avoidance.

Furthermore, I would also suggest Mr. Leguizamo to strengthen his focus on projecting his reward-obtaining moments for down the road, hence enabling him to be more resilient in the present, with focus of knowing, or at least expecting, to be further recognized or rewarded later.

A final strategy I would like to propose to this professional performer would be for him to further foster in-group collectivism among his fellow Latino / Hispanic artists, so that they can more strongly express their pride and union, which as a collective body will enhance their degree of representation of their community, hopefully managing to make an easier space for the upcoming generations not to have to struggle as hard to have access to the same opportunities as non-minorities do.