Diversity Coaching

To future-proof an organization, every leader should be aware of the forces at play regarding diversity. The world is becoming a small integrated village faster, with everything that separated its people giving way to the new normal. The Corona Pandemic has accelerated some of these things. Nonetheless, even without it, the world was already heading in the same direction

To ensure that an organization not only survives but thrives in these times. A leader should know how to navigate diversity. There was a time when the workplace had only one gender; men!! Can you believe it? Then men had to deal with a workplace where women started to work side by side with them, let alone become leaders of an organization. That was a disruption to the man-controlled workplace, and wise leaders had to adjust to take advantage of the new normal. They had to find ways of harnessing the power of that diversity that had become a new normal.

There was a time when the workplace had almost one race. If another race was allowed, they were a non-entity because they held very insignificant cleaner or genitor positions as they are called in America. However, that didn't influence the culture of the workplace as much. ?In most cases, people also spoke the same language in the workplace.

Time is long gone when the workplace comprises only one gender, race, language, etc. Even gender is no longer just male and female in today's world. The internet has changed the way the workplace looks. Borders no longer exist when it comes to working these days. I work for an organization that has people from 4 continents. Our meetings are sometimes across six or more time zones. Other people may be eating a morning snack in the meeting. At the same time, others may have just finished their dinner preparing to go to bed after the meeting. Every leader should consider all these factors and more.

Here are a few reasons you need a diversity coach as a leader and why you need to sensitize everyone in the organization to be diversity savvy.

1.??????Culture: The workplace is more likely to be comprised of people from diverse cultures. Knowing how to manage biases and stereotypes will help a great deal as you deal with employees and as employees interact with each other. Otherwise, conflict, employee turn over and in extreme cases, even lawsuits will be the order of the day in your organization

2.??????Gender: Gender lines are getting blurry every day. Knowing how to deal with this could mean the difference between success and failure as a leader.

3.??????Race: Races freely integrate in the workplace, but many people do not know much about other races except for the stereotypes they grew up with. Laying aside one's biases and knowing what a stereotype is and what is fact matters. That can mean success or failure as a leader.

4.??????Language: Language is another issue that a leader shouldn't ignore. It is already possible to have people from as many as 20 countries working together remotely on the same team in some organizations. Talk about diversity. How do you navigate the complications of having to deal with people speaking a different language from yours?

5.??????Technology: How about the introduction of robots in the workplace? That is a whole new level of diversity altogether. A leader should have a plan for that.

These and many other factors necessitate every leader to either take some time to study how to navigate diversity or get a diversity coach that can help them navigate these murky waters. All the best as you navigate variety in your organization.

Kenneth Mwale

Transformational Leadership Coach