Leadership development as equity infrastructure: Strategies for authentic black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) advancement

Purpose: Organizations that advance Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) professionals into senior-level positions through effective talent acquisition and pipeline development often encounter a distinct barrier business leaders who lack the competencies to establish inclusive cultures that support authentic BIPOC advancement once professionals enter the organization. This study explores effective strategies business leaders use to develop leadership capacity and representation as components of equity infrastructure, examining how leadership philosophy, inclusive competency development, visibility practices, and mentorship and sponsorship systems create the conditions leaders describe as necessary for sustainable BIPOC advancement to senior-level roles.  Design/Methodology/Approach: This qualitative pragmatic inquiry is grounded in a composite conceptual framework integrating Sue’s (2001) Multidimensional Cultural Competency (MDCC) framework, Akbar and Parker’s (2021) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Theory, and Kotter’s (1996) eight-step Change Management model. Nine business leaders in North America who have implemented leadership development and representation strategies with demonstrated success in advancing BIPOC professionals were selected through purposive sampling. Semi structured interviews served as the primary data source, supplemented by publicly available organizational documents. Thematic analysis yielded intercoder reliability above 85%. Findings: Thematic analysis identified four interconnected strategies participants described using: 1) leadership philosophy, approach, and representation, 2) inclusive leadership competency development, 3) visibility practices and behaviors, and 4) mentorship, sponsorship, and support systems. Participants’ accounts suggest these strategies function as integrated equity infrastructure leadership philosophy translated into actionable competencies, reinforced through visibility initiatives, and sustained through mentorship and sponsorship collectively creating pathways participants described as critical to enabling BIPOC professionals to advance and lead authentically in senior-level roles. Originality/Value: Equity infrastructure an integrated system encompassing philosophy, inclusive competencies, visibility practices, and mentorship and sponsorship reframes leadership development as a structural organizational imperative rather than an individual capability-building exercise. Where prior scholarship (including companion research on this dataset) has examined talent acquisition and pipeline mechanics as the primary lever for BIPOC representation, this study suggests that sustainable senior-level advancement additionally requires investment in the leadership culture that determines whether BIPOC professionals can lead authentically once inside the organization. Formal sponsorship emerges as a particularly notable finding participants who described building sponsorship into standard leadership practice, rather than relying on organic relationship development, reported stronger perceived BIPOC advancement outcomes than those without such structures. As this qualitative pragmatic inquiry is grounded in interview data and participant accounts rather than independently audited organizational metrics, these findings should be interpreted as reflecting practitioners’ experiences and perspectives rather than independently verified outcomes.