Diversity is Your Superpower: Leading in the Next Normal

The last time we met, I shared my perspective on how leaders should actively illuminate the skills and attributes of their talent in the workplace. I did so by sharing “data that drives me, stories that inspire me and small actions I’ve found that can create change.”

This next series hopes to produce a similar outcome with an exciting shift: adding voices into the conversation!

As we continue, my colleague, Deanna BenBassett and I will discuss obstacles leaders face today and how to overcome them.

To start, I crowdsourced topics here from my community of leaders. Please enjoy reading my conversation with Deanna about the new series below and get a taste of what to expect in future postings.

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Deanna: I love that you asked what your community wanted to hear about in this series! I imagine people globally are experiencing varying levels of the same insecurities around the future of the workplace; what themes did you find from the topics suggested?

Heather: I was happy to receive such thoughtful responses to my post! In the last two years, much has led us to reevaluate what is “normal.” This was evident in the comments where leaders asked us to cover turnover, team exhaustion, and navigating our reliance on tech.

I intend to guide a conversation about what is required of leadership in this “next normal” and how to celebrate diversity as if it were a superpower. As a leader, I believe when you showcase diversity, you can have a direct impact on retention, teach ways to thrive in a hybrid environment, and can celebrate your own diversity to inspire others.

Deanna: Diversity is incredibly important—in the workplace and your personal life. For me, even diversity in the food I eat is important. I like to understand where my food comes from—not just its origin like the farm or the country, but also its cultural importance. I believe this translates to how I also want to understand people.

What does diversity mean to you?

Heather: Diversity, to me, means the ability to bring my whole self to a conversation, a situation, or a problem. Bringing all that I am—on the good and the bad days—without the fear of sharing a different perspective.

Often people feel like their opinions or ideas don’t matter. But in today’s world, diversity of opinions has never been more important.?There is no way for any one person to have all the answers to the problems we face.

Each teammate has experiences, education, and skills unique to them, which enables them to solve a problem or navigate through a difficult situation. I believe this diversity is your superpower, and each time we don’t listen to your unique perspective, we are suboptimizing the potential of what we can do and the impact we can make.

Deanna: Now I understand why you called diversity a superpower! In superhero movies, it often takes some time for the hero to realize they have a unique power, and even longer to learn how to harness it. What advice would you give to leaders to help others find and harness their diversity superpower?

Heather: That’s a great question. Some of the things I have tried to do is: 1. Get to know people on a personal level, beyond their job title or responsibilities. Without a connection to who they are, it is difficult for them to find a connection to the work they are doing. 2. Ask for feedback from all levels and interactions. I have found that the more I ask for input, the more comfortable people are in sharing their perspective without feeling like they are being put on the spot. My most valuable insights have come from just asking for feedback on a project, task or even myself. 3. Always have people’s backs. You want to celebrate the good ideas, and the bad ideas even more. It’s important to create a safe environment that encourages people to try new ideas, skin their knees, and wear the bumps and bruises as badges of honor—because they are!

Deanna: Creating a safe environment to empower your team to share a piece of who they are and the unique skills they can flex is such an important leadership quality. Through this conversation, it seems like a shift from hard technical skills to soft skills is becoming more and more important for leaders today.

Heather: Being a technical expert has probably got many people to a leadership position historically, but this is no longer enough when you need to bring a diverse set of stakeholders, technology, and people together. You must bring multi-dimensional leadership skills—listening, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, motivation, compassion, and the list goes on, to be able to connect to what matters. As we move through this series, I think we can explore how leaders can help individuals capture their diverse superpower in the moments that matter for their team.

Deanna: It will be fun to discuss, interview and explore how leaders can avoid getting complacent by asking more from, and about, their team and in tandem ask the same of themselves.

We can’t wait to continue this journey with you.

Look forward to next month’s blog on leading during the Great Resignation.