TURN DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION LEADERSHIP INTO AN OPPORTUNITY INSTEAD OF A CHALLENGE

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions (personal competence) and those of others (social competence), discern between different feelings, and label them appropriately. Infused in daily use, this course, will provide individuals with the information to guide thinking, tendencies, and behavior, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve mission goals. The goal of increasing your emotional intelligence is to channel positive and negative emotions towards successful outcomes. 

Biases are an individual’s background, personal experiences, societal stereotypes, and cultural context that have an impact on decisions and actions without realizing it. These biases are influenced by background, cultural environment, and personal experiences. This course explores how Unconscious Biases are developed, how they influence our perceptions, shape our decision making and its impact on institutional diversity and inclusion initiatives. 

Inclusive leaders embody a leadership approach that appreciates diversity and inclusion while also inviting and welcoming everyone’s individual contribution and encourages full engagement with the processes of decision making. Inclusive leaders who are aware of their own biases and preferences, actively seek out and consider different views and perspectives to inform better the decision-making process. 

 Creating a positive and healthy culture for your team rests on several principles that may be practiced simultaneously or situationally. There are six essential characteristics that will guarantee a healthy culture. Those characteristics are caring for, being interested in, and maintaining responsibility for colleagues. Always providing support for one another, avoiding blame, and forgiving mistakes. Characteristics can also include, inspiring one another at work, emphasizing the meaningfulness of the work, and treating one another with respect, gratitude, trust, and integrity.  

Equality in the workplace is making sure people are given equal opportunities, equal pay, and are well accepted for their differences. It is creating an inclusive and conducive work environment where employees feel secure and happy. Equality ensures removing any chances of discrimination in the workplace. Individualized equality allows for leaders to provide opportunities to each team member although each opportunity may look different based on their diversity of knowledge, thought, and experience. 

Resilience is the ability to withstand, recover, and bounce back amid stress, chaos, and ever-changing circumstances. Resilient leaders do not dwell on failure but rather acknowledge the situation, learn from their mistakes, and move forward. Resiliency is a skill that can be improved with practice allowing for leaders to stay focused, productive, and effective, despite inevitable chaos and change. 

Leaders thrive on knowing where they meet the standards and expectations of the organization and colleagues. Leaders also have a greater passion for understanding how they could improve and where they excel in their performance to ensure continued success. Measuring leadership performance is a way to recognize the blind spots that can keep one from being the effective leader they strive to be. Measuring leadership performance also allows for the positive traits to be recognized and sustained for continued success.

According to the “21 Laws of Irrefutable Leadership”, only secure leaders give power to others. Empowerment is to give the means, the power or opportunity to perform on their own. To empower others, we must first trust ourselves and then trust others to follow through managing processes and performing the tasks. Empowering others increases productivity and enhances the passion for the mission and values of the organization. 

The delegating leadership style is a style of leadership where a group leader assigns projects or assignments to their employees and gives them free rein to work. The employee(s) get to make all decisions and choices, which they are then responsible for. There are positive gains to utilizing delegation to empower colleagues by providing opportunities to learn, grow, and use their talents to their highest potential. 

Goals are designed to be achievable, sensible, and practical to foster a clear mutual understanding of what constitutes expected levels of performance and successful professional development. They are established to create a statement of the important results being worked towards to accomplish success. Realistic goals should align with the SMART Method focused on Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely data that can shape outcomes and create clear pathways enhancing productivity. 

Resilience is the ability to withstand, recover, and bounce back amid stress, chaos, and ever-changing circumstances. Resilient leaders do not dwell on failure but rather acknowledge the situation, learn from their mistakes, and move forward. Resiliency is a skill that can be improved with practice allowing for leaders to stay focused, productive, and effective, despite inevitable chaos and change. 

The need for trust in the workplace is a fundamental building block of any organization and can be regarded as so important as to make issues pertaining to trust capable of making or breaking an organization's culture. A focus on behaviors of trust and the 4 Cores of Credibility will bring a deeper understanding for building and sustaining trusting relationships. 

An open-door policy is a communication policy in which a leader leaves their office door "open" to encourage openness and transparency with the employees of that company. Employees are encouraged to stop by whenever they feel the need to meet and ask questions, discuss suggestions, and address problems or concerns with management. An open-door policy is typically intended to foster an environment of collaboration, high performance, and mutual respect between upper management and employees. 

Human connection is an energy exchange between people who are paying attention to one another. It has the power to deepen the moment, inspire change, and build trust. The deeper the human connection is between a leader and a colleague, the more powerful the relationship will become. Through strategies and tactics focused on skills to practice human connection, a leader is not only reaping the benefits, but the colleague is also feeling valued and seen. 

People value others who can communicate effectively through genuine empathetic active listening, providing encouragement, and conveying their own ideas and opinions while being aware and mindful of their own and other behaviors, emotions, and perspectives. Communications can be seen in the form of verbal’s and nonverbals. 

Transparency fosters trust, and trust is important for the health of every relationship under the sun. Building happiness and engagement through transparency means updating the entire company, regularly, on strategies and current events. Transparent leadership is the key to fostering a culture of trust between leaders and their employees. Employees who are kept in the loop and understand their role in the overarching purpose and goals of the company are, understandably, more likely to put their trust in their employer.

Inclusive Communication is an approach that seeks to 'create a supportive and effective communication environment, using every available means of communication to understand and be understood. It is about being aware and valuing all different ways a person may use to communicate to enable them to make and understand choices, express feelings, and needs, and involve themselves in the world around them.

When leaders take personal accountability, they are willing to answer for the outcomes of their choices, their behaviors, and their actions in all situations in which they are involved.  Accountable leaders do not blame others when things go in an unfavorable direction, they lean in and continue to push through the painful moments until resolution or change has balanced out. Accountability goes beyond individual actions and decisions.

Mindfulness is often defined as ‘non-judgmental, moment to moment awareness’. As leaders, it can also be thought of as the cultivation of leadership presence. Being present is quite a complex assignment in a world and global economy that measures time in internet seconds conceives of the past as the most reliable tool for analyzing and assessing how to proceed into the future, is increasingly interdependent and relational, and dedicates little or no time toward the development of its leaders. We will explore how meditation, reflection, and other contemplative practices influence the development of the fundamental qualities of leading and living with excellence.

The benefits of practicing gratitude are nearly endless. People who regularly practice gratitude by taking time to notice and reflect upon the things they're thankful for experience more positive emotions, feel more alive, sleep better, express more compassion and kindness, and even have stronger immune systems.

The coach approach to performance can be defined as partnering in a thought-provoking discussion that inspires individuals to maximize their personal and professional potential by empowering them to identify their Strengths and weaknesses and not what you as a leader believe they are. The coaching model focuses on active listening skills and empowering the team member to create self-awareness to improve or sustain performance.

Temperament awareness is the understanding of a person's manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting. Each person has patterns of behavior, or temperament, that are also part of his or her uniqueness. Temperament awareness illuminates a pathway to understanding how behaviors originate while also creating an equal space for a diverse understanding of personalities. 

Today’s workforce includes people of many ages and backgrounds. Each generation has different needs, attitudes, and approaches to careers and work. Understanding where employees are “coming from” is crucial to establishing a successful management-workforce relationship. Each generation has a “personality” as well as an approach to employers and careers. A working knowledge of generational differences gives you some tools to begin each relationship on a footing of trust and understanding. 

The foundational layers within the space of D&I management (i.e. social identity theory, implicit bias, microaggressions, intent versus impact, power and privilege, inclusion theory, etc.) if not managed appropriately or recognized as a priority can lead to disengaged colleagues contributing to less than effective teams. There is also a need to track behavior at the different levels of the system using a diversity lens.