Leveraging Diversity
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 Edmond
Bazerghi, Ph.D.
HPS Leadership Best Practices™ Guest Writer
Founder of the Center for Executive Assessment, Dr. Bazerghi
is an executive coach and organizational consultant. He
is also a psychologist in private practice. He has developed
360-degree feedback instruments tailored to the specific
needs of organizations, developed team building in organizations,
and helped managers through times of transition.
You may contact Dr. Bazerghi at edmondbazerghi@centerexec.com. |
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In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the
eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership
be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race
and ethnicity.
—Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
On June 23, 2003, a Supreme Court decision affirmed the use of
race as a factor in college admissions. On the same day, President
Bush issued a statement praising the court "for recognizing
the value of diversity on our nation's campuses."
"Diversity" in the context of this ruling applies primarily
to race, gender, and ethnicity and is based on the rights "common"
to all citizens under the law, regardless of their racial, ethnic,
religious, or cultural differences; but this approach does not do
justice to the notion of "diversity," which has a much
richer meaning. Webster's dictionary informs us that the word comes
from the Latin "diversitas," which means difference, dissimilitude,
unlikeness, variety, and multiformity. Working with what is common
and shared by all does not create synergy, neither individually
nor globally. Focusing on differences, dissimilitude, variety, and
multiformity and leveraging their potential is more likely to add
value to any dynamic organization.
An electoral or consultative body that would integrate differing
perspectives in its deliberations would have a much richer impact
on the body politic than it would have if it allowed its decisions
to derive from a singular and narrow perspective. Executive committee
members who would be afraid to differ from their CEO or COO (however
brilliant or competent those may be) would not provide the visionary
and creative leadership necessary to prosper in an ever-changing
economic situation.
Hiring women and minorities to satisfy a prescribed quota, while
being a step in the right direction in the eyes of the law, does
not by itself mine the richness that diversity could provide. Richness
derives from an attitude of openness to what is dissimilar, a willingness
to learn from what is unfamiliar, a capacity to integrate what is
different into what is traditional.
An executive coach would equate this awareness and acceptance of
diversity with "intellectual curiosity" and "feedback."
Intellectual curiosity is an ongoing enrichment of our field of
knowledge beyond our formal academic and professional training;
it is also an attitude of alertness to and a desire to learn from
persons with different cultural backgrounds and professional orientations.
Feedback is a direct corollary to intellectual curiosity. In seeking
feedback one invites, listens to, and integrates the opinions of
others into one's own perspective.
When hiring, managers should look not only for professional competence
in their candidates, but—most importantly—for their intellectual
curiosity, their willingness to learn from unfamiliar, varied experiences
and environments, and for their openness to feedback. True leadership
in management allows for different talents, gifts, and competencies
to collaborate and integrate their varied perspectives, resulting
in a greater total effect than the sum of their individual contributions.
The value of differences holds true also for organizations. In an
article published in the November 2003 issue of Harvard Business
Review, under the title "The Forgotten Strategy,"
Professor Pankaj Ghemawat from the Harvard Business School in Boston
presents a similar argument. The subtitle of his article reads:
"Most of modern global strategy focuses on minimizing differences
between countries. Perhaps it's time to dust off approaches that
exploit those differences as well." Professor Ghemawat adds,
"…to focus exclusively on the tension between global scale
economies and local considerations is a mistake, for it blinds companies
to the very real opportunities they could gain from exploiting differences.
Indeed, in their rush to exploit similarities across borders, multinationals
have discounted the original global strategy: arbitrage, the strategy
of difference."
At the individual level, in order to recognize, understand, and
manage differences, we must widen our comfort zone and open our
minds to the unfamiliar. We must seek feedback from those who surround
us, who collaborate with us at different levels and with different
perspectives. For the intellectually curious, personal development
is an ongoing and never-ending process.
To sensitize ourselves and to leverage the potential of diversity,
we must first be aware of our own gifts and competencies. We must
be humble enough to recognize not only our areas of strength but
also those areas that may need development. Then, and only then,
will we be able to recognize, manage, and welcome differences in
others. There are some tools that may help us in this process of
sensitization and self-awareness. Among others, assessment instruments
like the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" from Consulting
Psychologists Press and "Key Competencies for High-Performance
Leadership" from the Center for Executive Assessment provide
the opportunity for self-awareness and self-management, as well
as for understanding and managing differences with those who surround
us and collaborate with us. The first one can be accessed at www.cpp.com;
the second at www.centerexec.com.
Any coach or counselor knows that the art of achieving a successful
relationship of any kind (managerial, marital, parental, etc.) is
very simply the art of managing and leveraging differences.
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