Creating Safe Spaces: How Latino Leaders Can Champion Speaking Up

Posted by: Maryanne Piña

Safe spaces don’t just happen. They are created, modeled, and sustained by courageous leaders who choose to speak up, extend influence, and foster diverse perspectives.

For Latino leaders navigating corporate America, speaking up is more than a communication skill; it’s a way to uplift others. At LCA, we believe that cultivating environments where all voices are heard starts with those who lead with purpose, empathy, and a deep commitment to inclusion. Through our i3LCA™ Methodologyand validated Career Predictors, we provide insights that help Latino professionals not only thrive individually but transform their workplaces from the inside out.

In this blog, we explore how Latino leaders can actively create safe spaces by championing three critical behaviors: Speaking Up, Extending Influence, and Leveraging Diversity—three Career Predictors that fuel individual advancement and organizational change.

1. Speaking Up: Reclaiming Your Power

Culturally, many Latinos are taught to show respect by avoiding confrontation or challenging authority. But silence, especially in the face of exclusion or inequity, can be a barrier to individual credibility and collective growth.

Speaking Up is about taking interpersonal risks sharing your point of view, asking challenging questions, and naming difficult truths even when it feels uncomfortable. Latino leaders who speak up not only validate their perspectives and insights, they also provide the opening for others to do the same.

How to Lead the Way:

• Prepare and practice your message ahead of critical conversations.
• Model confident but compassionate communication.
• Use your voice to uplift others who may be afraid to speak.

Takeaway: When you initiate crucial conversations, you invite others into a space of shared courage.

  

2. Extending Influence: From Connection to Advocacy

Influence is not about hierarchy; it’s about connection. Extending Influence is the ability to communicate in ways that make others feel important, heard, and connected to a larger cause. For Latino leaders, this means using your platform to validate others, especially those who are overlooked or marginalized.

Influence grows through intentional relationship-building, adaptive communication, and consistent follow-through. It’s about becoming the person others turn to when they need guidance, truth, or support.

How to Use Your Influence to Build Safe Spaces:

• Get to know your “key players” and understand their stressors and aspirations.
• Actively validate the experiences of those around you.
• Become a connector—introduce people across diverse networks and advocate for their inclusion.

Takeaway: People don’t follow titles. They follow people who listen, connect, and deliver.

3. Leveraging Diversity: Turning Differences into Dialogue

Because of our multicultural heritage and experience, Latino leaders are uniquely positioned to foster inclusive environments. Leveraging Diversity means more than hiring diversely—it means actively fostering different viewpoints to uncover better ideas and outcomes.

Creating a safe space requires disrupting the comfort zone. It means inviting divergent opinions, listening for full understanding, and fostering conversations that are honest, respectful, and genuine.

How to Normalize Diversity in the Workplace:

• Facilitate open dialogues across teams and cultures.
• Actively circulate and build relationships outside your team and function.
• Listen deeply and be willing to challenge ideas, assumptions and bias, even in yourself.

Takeaway: True leadership doesn’t silence difference—it amplifies it.

Why It Matters More Than Ever

According to our research, Latinos remain underrepresented in executive roles and often face high attrition rates in corporate settings. One key reason is the lack of psychologically safe spaces where cultural identity, innovation, and authenticity are welcomed. When Latino leaders model courageous communication, inclusive influence, and multicultural awareness, they shift not only their teams but also the very DNA of corporate culture.

Takeaway: Safe spaces don’t emerge by policy—they are shaped by people.

A Call to Action 

Latino leaders: your voice has power. Use it to open doors, challenge norms, and create inclusive environments where others feel seen, heard, and valued. In doing so, you’re advancing your own career and paving the way for generations to come.

Take the Latino Career Assessment to discover your strengths and opportunities in each of the 14 Career Predictors which include Speaking Up, Extending Influence, and Leveraging Diversity.  The path to authentic leadership starts with knowing who you are and using that insight to lift others.