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Diverse Leadership

Diversity.....what's the first thing that comes to your mind?  Race, color, gender?  The reality is, diversity is more encompassing than most people believe.  What makes a leader diverse?  Think of how you are different from everyone else....this is your culture, your diversity.  As a leader, you will be faced with a multitude of diverse people with whom you will be working.  Here are a few examples of some diverse cultures/characteristics you may encounter as a student leader:
 

gender political beliefs marital status
language race physical abilities
hometown religion socioeconomic status
intelligence education background family history
 

Now that you have an understanding of how broad diversity is, let's take a look at how you can work with people with different cultures than your own.

Proactive vs. Reactive
As a leader, you will be put into situations with varying degrees of comfort levels.  How will you react?  How will you prepare yourself?  Much of what you need to know about working with diverse leaders can be obtained from educating yourself.  This education typically comes in two ways:

  1. Being reactive
  2. Being proactive
As a leader, most every time you will encounter issues of diversity, it will be from a reactive mode.  That is, you will find yourself in a situation where you will have to respond to the actions of others.   For example, if you make a comment regarding a stereotype, someone may put you on the spot and tell you they felt uncomfortable with your remark; or, you may make a decision for the group, and members of the group may not agree with you due to your feelings toward a certain ideology.  Situations such as these force you to react, and thus, you will already start out "one step behind."  As a leader, you will need to work on ways to become more proactive and less reactive.

The primary way to become more proactive is to get out of your comfort zone and place yourself in a safe environment where you can learn to work with people from different backgrounds (from your own).  By taking the initiative to interact with others, people with diverse backgrounds may be more inclined to understand you for misconceptions you may have/mistakes you make.  Here are a few suggestions to prepare you to become more proactive.

Five Proactive Steps to Become More Culturally Aware

5.  Don't judge a book by its cover.
4.  Learn about others' cultures. Read a book, talk to someone from a different heritage than your own.
3.  Seek first to understand, then to be understood. (one of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)
2.  Empathize!  Put yourself in the other person's shoes. How would you feel?
1.  Integrate! Strive to include others in your decision making process, especially those people who are different from you.

Along with working with diverse people, there are also ways to improve your efficiency as a leader.  Once again, the following proactive measures should assist you in learning about your comfort level in working with diverse leaders.

Six Things You Can Do To Diversity Your Leadership Development

1.  Attend a meeting of a different club and introduce yourself.
2.  Attend an event sponsored by another student group and actively participate.
3.  Invite someone from another culture to attend one of your events.
4.  Invite a member of another culture to dinner. Ask them about their experiences.
5.  Coordinate a program with another club with a diverse membership.
6.  Hang around with a diverse student for an entire day. Observe what they go through.

For more information regarding developing a more effective and efficient organization, contact the Student Activities Office.