In the world of business, diversity is defined in many (and often inconsistent) ways: prime vs. minority, affirmative action, people of color, quotas, inclusion, disadvantaged business enterprises, just to name a few. While language matters (and I might add that we need to drastically update our diversity lexicon), what is most important for a leader is to be comfortable with diversity in general . . . diverse thoughts, cultures, races, religions, ages, educational levels, household compositions, work environments, customer bases, political affiliations, just to name a few.
Diversity programs are a thing of the past because diversity comes in all shapes and sizes, everyday and everywhere. Diversity is really about integrating perspectives of the “majority”of people with whom a leader comes into contact. And, majority is defined as “everyone”.
Tags: Diversity, Indicators, Leadership
Patti Choby 
April 3, 2008 at 8:37 am |
[…] Indicators for Successful Leadership: Comfortable with Diversity « Patti Choby ‘Diversity is really about integrating perspectives of the “majority”of people with whom a leader comes into contact. And, majority is defined as “everyone”.’ (tags: leadership) […]
April 8, 2008 at 11:50 am |
Absolutely! Some of the greatest diversity in organizations is found between the functional silos. You will most likely find greater difference in thought/approach/world-view between a white male engineer and a white male HR person, than you would find between an white male engineer and female engineer of color. The same can be said for Finance and Sales, Marketing and Law, etc. I used to be in HR, I’ve seen it.