by Susan Klopfer, Group Klopfer
Self-awareness is at the heart of strong leadership. Effective diversity leaders stay ahead by working to improve this critical skill.
An important key is committing oneself to the lifelong practice of self-understanding and comprehending the diverse world around us. No matter how hard a person tries, we all have biases; we discriminate without even recognizing what we are doing.
William Sonnenschein, a noted diversity expert and author, suggests overcoming this tendency by “waking up tomorrow morning” and “try wondering what prejudice you will discover during the day, what assumption you will make that will be proven wrong, what bias will affect your day.”
By finding a daily bias, Sonnenschein believes a person will know they are continually working on self-awareness, show themselves they are self-aware enough to know they have biases, and are working at eliminating as many as possible.
As people work on self-awareness, they become aware of things that are happening around them and are able to intervene and taking on a leadership role.
What if a company leader who always views diversity in terms of numbers of employees, as Affirmative Action, attended a diversity workshop that included formation of problem-solving teams and observed that diverse teams actually did a better job solving problems than the vanilla teams?
This experience could actually change the way this company leader sees diversity and what it could mean to his company. He may also recognize how his own blinders had held back his company’s progress.
This imaginary company leader might further recognize that change is needed at every level of the organization. As an initial step, he might create a diverse group to staff one of the company’s trouble areas – and if all goes well, the troubled area could turn around, showing a profit.
So how does one work on self-awareness, so as to be more aware of what is going on around them with respect to diversity? It starts by working on communication skills in relation to diversity. Sonnenschein has developed a diversity questionnaire to help increase self-awareness. Here are three sample questions:
- Do you recognize and challenge the perceptions, assumptions, and biases that affect your thinking?
If the answer is “almost always,” assign one point; “frequently,” 2 points; “sometimes,” 3 points; “seldom” 4 points and “almost never, “5 points.” Use the same scoring system for the next two questions:
- Do you think about the impact of what you say or how you act before you speak or act?
- Do you do everything you can to prevent the reinforcement of prejudices, including avoiding using negative stereotypes when you speak?
Sonnenschein includes seven more questions in this diversity questionnaire, part of his Diversity Toolkit (Contemporary Books, 1997). The lower the score, the better is one’s ability to communicate in a diverse organization and the community at large.
Here are three more diversity leadership tips:
- Know your cultural identity and understand what that identity brings to your communication. This helps in communicating with others of differing cultural identities.
- Ask others about yourself and listen to their answers. This helps in increasing self-awareness.
- Examine your order or grading of values. This helps in understanding how you behave and communicate.
Effective manager are good leaders. They are responsible for creating a work environment in which the contributions of all people are recognized. For this to happen, managers must understand how to best use people’s differences so that their special attributes can be used to achieve company goals and objectives.
But it starts from within, from the manager’s self-awareness.
About the Author :
Say — effective diversity management helps any organization. Susan Klopfer, M.B.A., speaks, consults and writes on the topic. Her new book, Profit From Diversity; Getting Along With Others, is set for publication Nov. 15, during National Education Week. Learn more from her website at http://susanklopfer.com today.
I think I’m good and heart, I do watch what I say when I’m speaking to others to how it will make them feel I try to do right by everyone when possible. I also have a open mind I don’t hold a grudge. I asked my fiance what he thought about me and I listened but I believe he is bias. I am going ask more people what they think of me use see if what I think of me is what other think about me.
I believe I am a very open minded person and I learn a lot from other people. I would never put someone’s idea down. I might suggest another one but that doesn’t mean mine is better.
Being self aware and aware of your surroundings will not only teach you about yourself but also others around you. We all don’t communicate the same. What motivates one might not be the same for you. Taking a step back and observing others interactions will in turn help you understand how to effectively communicate with your staff , friends and family. Great article!
I work in a facility that you have to listen to everyone opioion in order to see what is going on and that way you can communicate to have a god staff and get things done you have to have a good leader in order to do this you have to listen to everyone is side so you can have a better understanding in which everybody is having issues with and we come together to work it out and have a better community. we have to set an example for each other that is they only way things will go smooth I know every day is not perfect but it can be by talking about it and come up with a plan to get things done.
All cultures are diffierent. in many organization have empolyees that come from all over the world diversity being open minded about the cultures of other states an countrys the people an the way they do things.
I am very diverse when it comes to dealing with other people, keeping a opening mind when it comes to others is a great way to learn new things. I would never shout down someone’s else idea with out first seeing if we can work together on bringing our ideas as one.
I consider myself to be a very divers person.
I’m very understanding and view everyone’s opinion. Just because you come up with an ideal doesn’t mean it’s the right one, There could always be an easier way.
I’d kike to think that I’m a very open minded individual. Diversity can knock a person down. like ssss`q
I believe that diversity is what makes life interesting and appealing. I also agree that self awareness is key to understanding the many different organizations, companies, and people. Being aware of ones own bias thinking and prejudist assumptions might help them become more open minded and accepting to others. Im a very open minded person and I enjoy learning from all different cultures and people. Especially when im driving back and fourth from Texas to Pennsylvania. Its definitely a cultural shock in itself. But i embrace all the diversity around no matter where I may be whether its going on a road trip, grocery shopping, and especially within a work environment. Diversity is opportunity for learning.