Diversity (3)
Diversity-3*
1. Fundaments of Embracing Diversity
One of the most important things a leader can do, no matter the style or role, is to embrace diversity. Many people resist diversity because they resist change. Yet the diversity of the workplace is a trend that cannot be reversed, and it is creating change. Leaders need to do more than accept the change, more than accept the existence of diversity. To make diversity work, they need to be among the first to embrace it.
By modeling good diversity skills, by demonstrating their respect and appreciation for the differences among us, leaders can help others accept and value diversity. The fundamentals of embracing diversity include:
· Respect for others, for differences, for ourselves.
· Tolerance for ambiguities in language, styles, behavior.
· Flexibility in situations that are new, difficult, or challenging.
· Self-Awareness to be sure you understand your reactions and know what you bring to the diverse workplace.
· Empathy to feel what someone who is different from you might be feeling in new or strange surroundings.
· Patience for change that can be slow, and diversity situations that might be difficult.
· Humor because when we lose our sense of humor, we lose our sense of humanity, as well as our perspectives.
3M is an organization dedicated to valuing the diversity of its workforce. Richard Lidstad, Vice President of Human Resources, says that respect is the key to embracing diversity. He tells a story of coming to 3M many years ago, during an era when male executives always wore sport shirts and Hush Puppies, and had a scraggly beard. The man turned out to be one of the company’s top inventors, holder of 13 patents. People had so much respect for him, for what he had accomplished, that they learned to ignore how he dressed. Lidstad uses that story to stress the importance of doing more than tolerating differences. To be a successful leader, he says, you need to embrace differences in people, their cultures, their ways of behaving in the world.
2. Communication**
Leadership requires excellent communication skills. Working in and leading a diverse workforce requires excellent communication. Communication skills are any executive’s, any manager’s, any leader’s most important skills. Understanding the meaning of communication is the first step to gaining those skills.
3. Defining Communication
Communication is the process of creating shared meanings. Yet the word, and that definition, mean much more. By exploring what “community” ( a word with the same root) means, we can come to an understanding of what we mean by “creating shared meaning.”
4. Community
Community can be broken into two primary meanings, one geographic and the other social. A geographic community is defined by physical borders that encompass areas where people live and work. A neighbourhood, a town, even a state or a country is a community, on progressively larger scales. All geographic communities consist of physical areas where people have certain responsibilities they must share, including maintaining the environment, protecting the communicty from outside forces, and assuring that the people within its boundaries ara as satisfied as possible. The community members must work together, come to agreement on many issues, all for the best of everyone. They share the concerns and goals, and often the values, of their communities.
A social community is a community with social rather than geographical boundaries. The gay community, the African American community, the nonprofit community, the Buddhist community, are all social communities. These communites, like geographic ones, have many interests in common. As a result, members of these communities share many responsibilities in the maintenance of their communities. Like geographical communities, they share concerns, goals, and values.
5. The Nature of Commmunication
Other words with the same root also contribute to understanding what communication means. When we “communicate with nature”, we become one with it. Communion in many churches means becoming one with God. To become one with, to share – that is the true nature of communication. Communication is that process by which we become one with others, not completely or totally, but insofar as specific meanings and specific understandings are concerned. We share a part of ourselves, our message, our meaning of words and behavior, with another.
We all have different frameworks. We all come from different backgrounds, different experiences. What means something to one person means something different to another, so we need to work together, to dance with each other, to create a meaning we can share. By going through the process of creating a shared meaning, we understand each other, we communicate.
6. Communicating Yourself***
Sharing a part of yourself also focuses on another important element of communication: what we communicate. No matter what else we may want to communicate, or what meanings we want to create and share, we always communicate ourselves. The basic principles of communication include two truisms: as human beings, everything we do communicates something to those who hear or see us; and the primary thing we communicate is ourselves. In other words, we cannot not communicate ourselves.
A leader needs to understand that, by embracing diversity, we communicate ourselves as people who value and respect differences. By being leaders, we communicate ourselves as leaders.
7. Language and Communication
Creating shared meaning is not easy to accomplish. Humans communicate in an ambiguous way; we use words. Words by their very nature have multiple meanings. They are open to interpretation and context. In fact, one of the reasons we need to create shared meaning is because of the multiple meanings of our words.
We use words to create our reality. Words shape everything we understand, and create things we don’t see. When we look at creating our visions and organizational culture, the importance of language as reality will become more apparent. A leader who uses language so well that she can create reality, or her vision of reality, is a powerful leader indeed.
8. Diversity Tips
· Diversity is a fact of contemporary organizational life and will become increasingly so in the future.
· When positively and properly supported, workplace diversity can produce tangible benefits.
· Leadership is key to gaining diversity’s benefits, and can come from any level in an organization.
· Leadership also needs to come from the top.
· Communication and awareness are key.
*W. Sonnenschein: Diversity Tooolkit. ISBN: 0-8092-2842-4
** C.J.M. Beniers: Intercultural Communication. http://www.slideshare.net/beniers/presentations
*** C.J.M. Beniers: Intercultural Sensitivity. http://web.me.com/beniers/Film_Intercultural_Sensitivity/Intercultural_Sensitivity.html
Prof. C.J.M. Beniers
NL Zoetermeer
30-05-2010
© Copyright 2010
About Professor C.J.M. Beniers
Prof. C.J.M. Beniers is a well known authority in the field of modern and international communication techniques. He developed the Six-Component-Model. This model enables companies, institutions and politicians to communicate and negotiate with counterparts from all over the world successfully. His career began as international manager at Philips and later he earned his doctorate as professor in communication. He has more than 35 years experience as manager and management trainer. Thus he knows both sides – theory and praxis – very well. As scientist, Prof. Beniers conducts frequently research in the field of intercultural communication. The results of his interesting research can be found in news articles, free pod casts, audio books and his E-books such as “Bridging The Cultural Gap.” Here, modern managers learn how to prepare for business meetings with people from different cultures; they acquire the techniques and tools to handle situations in times of crises successfully, master intercultural barriers, country-specific communication patterns, looking into personal cultural values & systems. Knowing all this, men can prevent cultural misunderstandings and misinterpretations – not only in business but also in private life.
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