How do you develop and maintain a diplomatic leadership style in your career?

Diplomatic leadership is definitely all about building personal bonds with the teams. This is what strengthens the team and keep it together. We should create the right environment using communication skills properly. It includes, active listening, respectful communication, real commitment to work with others searching for the required solutions with confidence. Empathy, trust and emotional intelligence are truly essential when building this type of leadership.

It’s critical to be self aware of your own strengths and weakness. This can also help you understand the biases you might have in decision making.

I used to percieve Diplomatic leadership or speach more as saying things that should rub your audience the wrong way. Going through this writing, it is clear that diplomacy is as much about knowing our own strengths, choosing WHEN and HOW to say things TO WHOM, but also ensuring that the audience caries away your key points for action or their knowledge.

I have found the Gallup's strengths approach the most powerful way to assess your strengths and become aware of your lesser talents. This scientific assessment helps you to drive activities based on your strengths rather than get into those which you could improve at.

Tough to truly dig in and assess your “strengths and weaknesses” without a coach or accountability partner that will tell you the truth. A coach can see patterns (comm and behavior) through active observation. With their candid supportive feedback you’ll start admitting things to yourself you’ve known subconsciously for a long time. This activates true self-awareness and mindfulness, and allows course correction, adjustments, and true CHANGE. A diplomat or ambassador both represents and is responsible for leveraging the minds, ideas and capabilities of their constituents. They don’t have to be the best at everything. They have to be capable of getting the best from others, while continuously reinventing themselves.

You can study the behavior and communication styles of successful diplomatic leaders, including their ability to communicate effectively, build relationships, and resolve conflicts. For example, you can read biographies, watch interviews or speeches, attend conferences or events where diplomatic leaders are speaking, or even participate in mentorship or coaching programs with experienced diplomatic leaders.

Your demeanor dictates how your message will be received. We may think that we're being assertive in our communications, but is our demeanor in sync with that? Often, our body language, tone of voice, posture, and eye contact convey that we are behaving aggressively or passive aggressively instead of assertively. This incongruence can be off putting. Developing the self-awareness to attend to what's not being said will help people to better receive what is being said. We have to adapt the way we deliver feedback based on each individual person's needs. Some people like direct, no holds barred communication, others appreciate a softer approach that still communicates what needs to change. It's up to us to learn our team's needs.

In my experience building trust is key . Treating people fairly , holding all to the same same standards and consequences, and being an equal member of the team during negotiations while being able to explain why a decision was made when all parties don’t agree . They may not agree but being tactful and understanding helps them understand why you leaned that way . Still ask for input .Even though they thought another plan was better , they still may have some ideas to improve the plan chosen further . Their thoughts and direction were focused elsewhere during the process. Again , this is building trust and making them feel valued.

Developing communication and negotiation skills is crucial in both personal and professional settings. Effective communication ensures that messages are accurately conveyed and understood, leading to better relationships and outcomes. Negotiation skills, on the other hand, are essential for reaching mutually beneficial agreements and resolving conflicts. Communication is the foundation of all human interactions. Whether it's a conversation with a colleague, a presentation to a client, or a discussion with a loved one, the ability to communicate effectively can determine the success of the interaction. Good communication involves not only speaking clearly but also listening actively and empathetically.

I agree, but only concerning leadership, not negotiations. As a professional who has earned a living, negotiating contracts and deals for over 50 years, I believe my responsibility is negotiate the best deal possible for my clients.

The way I’ve seen it done best is to assume that everyone has the best intentions and wants to do great things, actually articulate this, ask questions then Listen and Seek to Understand. Be approachable, positive and pro-active in looking for the best outcome for all. Be known as the person that wants to “Get it Right” not always be Right.

Being dug in on a point of view is dangerous. Being open-minded enough to know how to engage in a discussion that conflicts with your POV or belief’s is the essence of diplomacy. Active listening - seeking clarification - and truly seeking first to understand leads to great non-violent communication. Questions like “that’s a fascinating perspective - how long have you felt that way?” “What do you think is the root of that belief?” In terms of growing your network, this comes with exposure and increasing competence. The growing competence fuels self-confidence. You’ll always gain more as a student so insert yourself into great learning opportunities with the intention to meet and engage others. Share your digital business card and engage.

Leadership is ever evolving. Great leaders are agile and adaptable because they’ve learned how to best lead in today’s circumstances, which may be different from yesterday’s circumstances. You may not be a mental health professional, but you can learn about the tenets of mental health/well-being from one. You may not know how to connect with your teams, but you can learn how to ask compassionate questions and how to support. In order to be effective, we must always take a learner/listener stance. Doing so not only allows us to grow, but it allows us to show up effectively so that those we lead can grow.

Vision is essential to great leadership, but not every great leader needs to be a visionary. All leaders need to be able to effectively communicate and build buy-in for whatever vision they believe in.

Today, values have become a dogmatic barrier. Values are individual based; it is what one person determines is important to them. Instead, to embrace being a diplomatic leader, identifying essential virtues is a better approach. Virtues - like courage, consideration, and compassion - elevate beyond an individual and provide a foundation for engagement on what is vital for all stakeholders. When leaders can align on virtues, they can connect by digging in. “Tell me more” is a phrase to be exchanged frequently during a conversation. A collective connection to virtues will emerge. A virtues-centered approach raises our diplomatic leader capacity.

The power of being present cannot be understated. Giving someone your complete, undivided attention is as powerful for you as it is for them.

When I realized I was interested in leadership, I started affiliate as ting with groups like organizational leadership and development n e twork, women in higher education leadership and the likes. I love solving problems by the books. Wh as t does the constitution say? Let's try to ho invoke the constitution in this matter. But most times, uts met with resistance. People in my country, prefer to tackle issues their own way not necessarily as stated in the books.