Embracing Diversity Paper
It is important for a leader in an organization to pursue a path of continuous professional development and improvement. A substantial part of this endeavor includes self-awareness with regards to how the leader views the external environment. But more importantly, how does the world see the organization’s leader and their role and efforts? This assignment will afford you the opportunity to reflect on your own cognizance with regards to diversity, equity, inclusion and your own identity as a leader.
Watch the Percipio Embracing DiversityLinks to an external site. video (8m 18s). (see below transcript)
Think about diversity in your workplace. Then think about your own efforts as a leader to embrace diversity. In a three pages paper answers the questions below regarding diversity in the workplace. Consider your own identity as well as your understanding of diversity and the impact it continues to have in your life and the organizations that you are affiliated with.
1. What is your organization’s commitment to diversity? Is there a DE & I statement or mission statement?
2. Assess diversity, equity, and inclusion in your current or previous organization. What are some strong areas and what areas could use improvement?
3. What are some elements of your identity that you feel are obvious to other people?
4. Do you feel that your organization utilizes your uniqueness to its full capability?
5. Have you ever felt you needed to change any aspect of yourself to fit into the organizational culture? How did that make you feel?
6. As a leader or potential leader, what recommendations would you make to your organization regarding embracing diversity.
Due Tuesday 10th 6PM New York Time / 3 pages
Embracing Diversity
[Video description begins] Topic title: Embracing Diversity. [Video description ends]
LISA: Really?
[Video description begins] Lisa is at her desk, talking on her cellphone. Ron is sitting opposite her, listening. [Video description ends]Well, no, thank you. I’m glad I could help. Goodness of course. I’m flattered and I’ll be happy to. Yes, certainly just let me know when. I’ll look for it. Thanks again. Okay, bye-bye. Well, how about that?
RON: How about what?
LISA: I’ve been talking with the benefits people about domestic coverage options. They liked my suggestions, thought they were well thought out. And now they’ve asked me to serve on an advisory board for reviewing coverage options.
RON: That’s great, congratulations.
LISA: Thanks. RON: I’m glad to see them looking for diverse voices.
LISA: Me too. After spending the first part of her career trying to keep her private and work life separate, my sister was thrilled to be somewhere she could just be herself. Everyone deserves that.
[Video description begins] The host is in the host space. [Video description ends]
HOST: Embracing diversity means embracing a wide range of people for who they are. Diversity is a fact of life. We all differ as individuals. Diversity adds to the sum total of your company’s ideas, innovation and creativity. It’s as necessary for the workplace as it is for nature. When your people feel the need to hide or deny parts of themselves to succeed at work, then you’re only getting part of what they can bring to the office. Entrepreneur and business leader Sahar Hashemi shares her personal insight.
[Video description begins] A recording of Sahar Hashemi plays. [Video description ends]
SAHAR HASHEMI: And a mistake people make, especially in large companies, is they don’t bring all of themselves to work. Now entrepreneurs, you’re often working from home. You’ve got no much resources, so you have to apply 100% result to what you do. There’s no part of you can leave behind in this journey as an entrepreneur. But unfortunately, in established companies people tend to leave part of themselves behind. I think when I was a lawyer, I almost left 40% of myself behind the fridge and took on 60%. And it was only once I started Coffee Republic, I realized I’m taking 100% of myself. And the thing about taking 100% of yourself is not only would you do a much better job. But it’s actually much more fun because, I think, you deny a huge part of yourself by putting on the work face. So my point about diversity is it’s not about anything specific. It’s about even if you are a white male you still don’t want to be cookie cutter. Because you will have your own interests, your own talents, your own reservoir that somehow you’re not using. So everyone’s got to be much more authentic, I think, in the workplace. And bring all of themselves, their heads, their heart, everything, to work.
[Video description begins] Lauren and Tyler are at Tyler’s desk. [Video description ends]
TYLER: Okay then, with R & D making a firm commitment, we can safely say we’ve lined up at least five summer intern slots.
LAUREN: It’s so cool to see this coming together.
TYLER: This is going to mean a good deal of extra work for you and other volunteers. You know that, right? You’re sure you’re up to it?
LAUREN: I’m young and energetic.
TYLER: Good, make sure you carry that over to the interns.
[Video description begins] Joan and the host are in the host space. [Video description ends]
JOAN: High expectations work both ways, don’t they?
HOST: Yes, they do. In fact, setting high expectations is one of the most important actions you can take when getting your team to embrace diversity. And it does work both ways.
JOAN: Successful leaders know that all employees can and should contribute fully to realizing the company’s diversity goals.
HOST: This means not only embracing and fostering diversity, but that those who embody that diversity are all held to the same high standards. And this goes hand in hand with recognizing the intrinsic value of each individual employee you work with.
JOAN: Each individual brings their unique blend of skills, experiences, insights and creativity with them. As leaders we must commit to encouraging all of our people to express themselves and create an environment that supports and welcomes their individual points of view.
HOST: And that begins with looking at ourselves. To lead diversity requires that you seek personal awareness. Individual attitudes and beliefs can both facilitate and hamper your effectiveness at leveraging your team’s diversity.
JOAN: As a leader, I have to be aware that biases, attitudes, and deeply held beliefs create tensions and barriers to managing diversity. We need to be aware of our own personal biases, as well as those of others on our team.
HOST: The primary reason why diversity initiatives fail is that people don’t like to think of themselves as being biased or to admit feeling tense around people who are different. Leaders must be committed and courageous role models, demonstrating and encouraging self awareness through learning and dialogue.
[Video description begins] Lisa is at her desk. Ron is sitting across from her. [Video description ends]
RON: So yeah, it got a little tense for a while. There was a certain amount of why do we need this, and things are fine around here just like they are.
LISA: It sounds like some training may be in order.
RON: And that’s why I wanted to talk with you. You mention a while back that you were interested in sourcing diversity training. And I’m curious about what you found.
LISA: Well, the company has some existing materials, but they’re a little out of date and not very comprehensive. Frankly, we need to find a vendor that can provide better training content.
[Video description begins] Joan and the host are in the host space. [Video description ends]
JOAN: Changing attitudes and behaviors takes time and commitment.
HOST: That it does. Leaders must encourage personal development both formally and informally. Through training and dialog, employees can learn to recognize how varied cultural knowledge and experiences can positively affect doing their jobs and reaching their goals. To stimulate this, your culture must encourage personal development via training and education programs.
JOAN: This is more than a one-time diversity-training event. The mindsets and practices of the past no longer apply to new diversity management efforts. It requires instilling a common purpose and awareness of what diversity means now for your team.
HOST: Having a common purpose and increasing awareness of diversity issues and perceptions establishes a strong foundation for making diversity a strategic advantage.
JOAN: And to create that common purpose and awareness, you must have a widely understood mission and communicate it to your people.
HOST: To clearly communicate your mission and strategy requires having a mission statement that declares your goals and strategies. And provides guidelines on how employees should perform their tasks and interact with each other.
JOAN: A diversity mission statement may be organization wide, or it may be unique to your team. But in either case it needs to clearly set your vision of diversity and how you plan to achieve it.
[Video description begins] Lisa and Ron are sitting at Lisa’s desk. [Video description ends]
LISA: The good thing is that our overall structure here is relatively egalitarian, which helps promote the exchange of ideas.
RON: The trick is how to train people on that.
LISA: The trick is knowing exactly what we want them to learn.
RON: And what exactly is that?
LISA: Diversity is good for us, that it’s good for the business?
RON:Let’s talk to Joan.
[Video description begins] Joan, Ron, and Lisa are in a meeting room. Ron and Lisa hold papers that they read from. [Video description ends]
JOAN: So what do you have?
RON: We are committed to promoting diversity in all areas of our business, respecting the value of everyone’s perspectives, thinking, and viewpoints.
LISA: We acknowledge and honor the contributions and dignity of all individuals, creating an environment in which a diversity of experience and insight are encouraged and valued.
JOAN: I like those statements, but they don’t refer in any way to business, and we are a business.
LISA: Diversity is bigger than business.
JOAN: Yes, but for our purposes, we’re addressing diversity in business, in our company. How about something like this? We are committed to incorporating diversity in all its forms. In the service of achieving our strategic goals on behalf of all of our stakeholders, our customers, employees, and shareholders.
RON: Wow, that should do it.
LISA: That works. Time to put some training together.
RON: And get with my taskforce.
JOAN: Go spread the word.
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