Leadership Essay 2

INTRODUCTION ​258 ​TO LEADERSHIP ​9.4 R​EFLECTION AND ​A​CTION ​W​ORKSHEET

Diversity and Inclusion

Reflection

1. ​ ​What is your response to the word diversity? Do you think it is a significant problem in our society, or do you think it is overemphasized? Explain your thoughts on diversity. ​Diversity is an important piece to every society. Because we meet more people daily and each one brings a new perspective about something into our live. Some people have different opinions and ideas that we might never have thought of. Our lives are filled with people, each with different backgrounds and experiences, who we interact with everyday.

2. ​Reflect on the six primary dimensions of cultural diversity shown in Table 9.1 (i.e, age, gender, race, mental and physical abilities, ethnicity, and sexual orientation). Which type of diversity is easiest for you to embrace, and which is hardest for you to embrace? Why? Explain your answers. ​The easiest for me to embrace is gender, because it does not matter that whether it is a men or women I am working with. However, I do not have any problem to get into people with any age, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, but gender would be easiest for me. Being a friendly person, I have male as well as female friends, so I would decide gender to be the first to choose. Mental and physical abilities would be the hardest for me to embrace. It is so because sometimes these people find it hard to understand your ideas and even not, like that you help them. The reason can be that they perceive something else and may have other personal reasons, because of which I do not feel good because I am always friendly and helpful to everyone. But, I can still work with them, as always I am friendly and helpful t everyone, If I think that anyone is not feeling comfortable, then I choose to not to be more close with the person and like to talk about what he/she expects from me.

3. ​One way to explore the concept of inclusion is to reflect on your own personal feelings about inclusion. In a group situation, how much do you want to be included by others? Using a personal example, discuss a time when you were in a group or on a team when you felt included by others and a time when you felt excluded. Why did you feel included in one situation and not the other? Elaborate and discuss. ​Yes, reflecting my own personal feelings about someone is a good method of inclusion. As I like to include the person I am working with or the group members, so if I am working in a group, I also want my group members to include me at the level, at which I include others, Not the same, but it should be satisfactory to me. In my last semester, I was working on a project in training and development course in which I feel very included by my group members. We meet thrice a week for a team meeting to discuss what,when, how, who and why the things need to be done. Everybody contributes his/her maximum part and

 

 

help each others whenever needed. While doing that project, If someone have some other work to do like, job, other assignments, then we contribute to his/her work.

4. ​Think about what circumstances got you to where you are today. Do you have a past that some would describe as privileged? Or, would you say you are not privileged? Do you see your colleagues or coworkers as having privilege? Discuss your thoughts on privilege.

Action

1. ​Explore your answers on Cultural Diversity Awareness Questionnaire. Select three items on which you chose almost never or never. Based on your responses to these items, discuss what you could do in your own leadership to be more inclusive toward others.

 

2. ​Imagine for a moment that you have been selected to lead a group service-learning project. What will you say to make others in your group feel psychologically safe? In what way will you let them participate in decision making? How will encourage those individuals who are most different from the group to feel like insiders yet still unique? Discuss. Honestly, I am very friendly person to be in a situation of doing group project. I would make them feel safety.

3. ​As discussed in the chapter,stereotypes often get in the way of including others who differ from us. What common stereotypes do you sometimes attribute to others (e.g., White male police officer, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, or transgender man)? How can you change these stereotypes? What messages will you give yourself to eliminate these stereotypes? Discuss.

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