Tuesday Tips

The Problem:

Leading diversity (difference) is amongst the most complex and difficult of all challenges that leaders face. How can you lead difference in such a way that the benefits of diversity can flourish?

The Solution:

Difference takes many forms – personal, cultural, gender to name but three. Identify the ‘difference’ in your team and think how best to leverage this to your advantage.

The ‘leading difference’ challenge is to move from a position of being ‘different from’ one another to being ‘different for’ one another to being ‘different together’.

Leading difference is the ‘new normal’ and you will need to find a framework and toolset to allow authentic conversation, a willingness to delve into creating and building emotional intelligence to leverage your diversity in order to be able to extract the multiple benefits for you and your team / business.

Maybe a place to start would be to discuss (at your next team meeting) what the old African maxim ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; If you want to go far, go together’ means for you.

 Raising awareness around difference in your team, and how important it is to leverage this difference (learning how to be different ‘for’ each other) is the first step in this important journey.

Chat to us if you’d like to kickstart 2017 by starting to raise this awareness and really leveraging the benefits of the diversity in your teams and organisations.

Keith Coats has recently returned from Hawaii where he plays a pivotal role annually, lecturing on ‘leading diversity’ and how to lead difference differently with the Asia Pacific and Pacific Island  Leadership Programmes – two of the most diverse programmes of their kind anywhere. He’d love to share some of the insights and learnings gained through his experiences in this area with your team. Connect with us to chat through how we can help you and your team really leverage the diversity within your organisations, or consider our START Conversations resource to assist you in having these conversations you know are important, yet sometimes aren’t sure how to start them.