How can you build trust and respect with diverse perspectives?

In my Six-S Framework for growing, engaging, and leading cross-cultural discourse and collaboration, I always start with (1) the self. Understanding one's own socialization, identity formation, traumas and triggers, intergenerational coding, biases, blindspots, fragility, fears, and vision are all foundational. Knowing how you show up in discourse, the space you take up in decision-making, reactivity to conflict and tensions, all are insights, and growth opportunities that promote authenticity and mitigate harm in diverse group dynamics. FYI: The other Six-S's are - the space, the systems, solidarity, speaking up, and solutions :)

An undervalued skill as a leader is knowing who you are. Take time to understand yourself, increase your awareness of and ability to manage your emotions. Assess your leadership skills for areas of opportunity for growth and instill a sense of being on a journey to develop as a human and as a leader. When you model healthy Emotional Intelligence and Energetic Intelligence, you empower others to do the same.

You might think you know yourself, but self-awareness should not be a solo journey. We can get caught up in our own assumptions and biases, entrenching us further in the subjective. So leaders need to account for others' perspectives. Proven self-assessment measures organize the test-taker's answers into a framework that may offer key insights into values (VIA), strengths (Clifton Strengths), or personality (Hogan), for example. 360-degree assessments add the inputs of co-workers up and down the org chart, reflecting on leadership behaviors and their real-life impact. Coaching and/or insight-oriented therapies can also shed light on which growth opportunities to prioritize.

Trust and respect are the cornerstones of effective leadership, especially when navigating diverse perspectives. Do you Trust and Respect yourself? Diversity, while presenting its own set of challenges, can be a wellspring of creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. As leaders, it's our responsibility to foster an environment where these benefits can be fully realized.

Self-awareness is not automatic. It requires self-reflection, which is something that we do not practice enough, collectively. It is easy to keep our heads down and keep moving forward with the busyness, but it is very important to self-reflect: interrogate our decisions, challenge our reactions, investigate our assumptions. This is one way to move towards self-awareness.

Just to simplify this: Be curious and open. If you can do that with the people around you, you will build connection which will lead to trust and respect.

In addition, a virtual Leader may need to travel and observe things in-situ. A number of things are difficult to understand if you’ve never physically seen the circumstance in which your staff operate. Information from documents and other sources sometimes don’t tell the full story of your Teams’ perspectives, motivations and rationale of work. Also poignant is the fact that the staff themselves may struggle to adequately communicate the peculiarities of their experiences. The “go-see” concept of Lean is quite important in leading virtual large teams. This can be done in keeping with carbon footprint considerations.

People will discuss things with you if they want to. Don't force the issue or put someone in a spotlight. Don't expect people to agree with your assumptions.

Understanding oneself is the first step towards appreciating and respecting the differences in others. It's about recognizing our values, beliefs, assumptions, and biases, and understanding how they influence our behavior, communication, and decision-making. Self-awareness is the foundation of emotional intelligence, a key skill for leaders.

Clear is kind, right? The best way to be clear is to: 1. Keep it simple. 2. Check for understanding. 3. Don't assume the other person gets it. My favorite way to do this through power phrases: 1. What I think I heard was.... 2. If I understand you correctly.. 3. This is what I understood from... This gives people a chance to correct you. Your tone also matters a lot. It's not what you say but how you say it. Listening to understand vs listening to respond makes a huge difference.

Building trust and respect with diverse perspectives requires learning about others. I t's about understanding their backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and preferences. It's about showing curiosity, openness, and Empathy, and avoiding stereotypes, judgments, and assumptions. It's about seeking to understand the reasons and feelings behind the perspectives of others. Are you able to understand the different perspective of another human being?

Communication is multidirectional... it is not just how we deliver our messages but how we receive them. Using appropriate listening tactics and asking relevant questions (to show that we are paying attention) are just as important to communication as delivering the message properly.

Effective communication is key to building trust and respect with diverse perspectives. It's about communicating clearly, respectfully, and inclusively. It's about using language that is appropriate and understandable for your audience, and avoiding jargon, slang, and idioms that might confuse or offend others

I’ve seen how cross collaboration across departments in an organization helps bring the mission of the organization together. It also opens up lines of communication and decreases conflicts between departments because of a better appreciation for the department and people in it.

Adaptability often gets a bad rap. "Stay the course," say some motivational posters, and don't dare be "wishy-washy" or vulnerable. Yet the most effective leaders are humble learners, constantly consuming data and knowledge from multiple sources and considering diverse - even unpopular - viewpoints. If leaders should be firm and unrelenting about anything, it should be in their willingness to have their ideas (and biases) challenged, their best decisions subject to continuous review and upgrades.

Collaboration is the way to leverage the benefits of diversity for your leadership success. It's about setting clear and shared goals, roles, and expectations, and aligning them with the vision and mission of the organization. It's about encouraging participation, input, and feedback from everyone, and valuing the diversity of ideas, opinions, and approaches.

A term that has become idiomatic in the DE&I landscape is "diverse person." On the surface, we know what it means, and it likely originated in earnest. However, it is a problematic phrase: Diversity can really only be a descriptor of a group (two or more), not a single person. So, we should consider avoiding making statements like, "We have diverse team members in this department," and consider saying, "Our department is quite diverse," or some other appropriate phrase.

It is vitally important to listen more and talk less, but make sure you do so with an open mind. A helpful anagram of listen is silent.