When you commit to valuing diversity and wanting to provide leadership to create conditions for equity, inclusion, and belonging, an important first step is to develop greater awareness about yourself in this work. Self awareness is part of the journey of being in genuine contact with yourself. Today, I am wondering if you struggle with the deep stuff?
A Deep Dive into Developing Your Leadership
I believe that undertaking important work requires deep dives in developing your leadership. Working with helping people fit in, valuing diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging is very important work. I have a question that I consider very important for you to consider.
Are you ready to look more deeply at yourself and your leadership so that you can be more effective in your work with diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging?
You may feel that you cannot answer this quickly. Or even easily pause and take some time to answer this question. You may need to break your answer into parts as you develop your awareness. Who you are in relation to “fitting in”, then on to “diversity”, then on to “equity”, then on to “inclusion” and then on to “belonging”.
Fitting In isn’t all it’s chalked up to be
I give you a little guidance to help you in your considerations: Do you understand that when a person works at “fitting in” the person abandons part of themselves to do so, leaving part of themselves at the door so to speak? Is your leadership work towards valuing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging dependent on a person’s willingness to fit in? If so, do you actually end up with valuing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging? This is worth thinking about. If your work is not dependent on the willingness of people to “fit in”, what is it dependent on?
This is part of the preparatory awareness-raising that we encourage you to do.
Self Awareness and Diversity
In doing so, you raise your awareness of your impact with people in this important work….impact that might be in alignment with your stated desire, and surprisingly. Impact that might not be in alignment with what you want to accomplish.
Your answer is related to your motivation for this work. Your answer also is a clue to the ‘blind spot(s)’ you have in this work. There are many benefits to looking deeply and raising your awareness about your thoughts. Superficial application to really important work just doesn’t do the work justice.
Are you ready to take this pause to look more deeply?
Learn more and develop your diversity and inclusion strategy at Developing Leadership for Working with Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging
As a leader committed to further developing inclusion and belonging in your organization, you might be looking for your own opportunities to go slow and build a solid foundation for yourself. May 31 – June 6, the annual Summer Academy learning intensive offers you just that chance.
Join us, and colleagues from around the globe, to develop your leadership for understanding and working with diversity, inclusion, and belonging. With ample opportunity for important conversations, growth, and development, this online learning experience will connect you with your own beliefs and values and let you learn from the experiences of others around the world. The group size is small enough for everyone to have the opportunity to meet their unique learning needs and develop actionable plans for going forward. We hope you will join us in this learning journey.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
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