Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity and Inclusion describes the ability to effectively interact with people of different cultural or religious backgrounds. To have an understanding of this competency you must spend time learning about the barriers of verbal and nonverbal communication between cultures. As a leader in a nation like the United States, developing a skillset that teaches you how to handle people of different ethnic backgrounds and religious groups is very important. This is because of how likely it is that you will interact with someone, in a business setting, who does not live with the same cultural norms was you at some point in your career. It seems to me like many organizations in the melting pot that is the United States have been becoming increasing focused on globalization and expanding into international markets which places even more emphasis on developing skills that help you promote diversity and inclusion before entering the workforce.
Diversity & Inclusion in Leadership
The company that I work for is one that is well known for their exceptional inclusion of people of all different areas of diversity. As a result, I meet, interact with, and problem solve with people from many different backgrounds. I think that understanding cross-cultural skills and diversity has improved my ability to lead in my own store and when I work in unfamiliar environments. There many social norms and nonverbal body language that differ from culture to culture so understanding how to act and respond when meeting new people is important. Understanding the actions that people of different ethnic groups find offensive is very important because the last thing that you want to do in the workplace or in your daily life for that matter is offend someone. I believe that learning about this competency has helped me improve my cross-cultural skills and taught me how to interact with people of several different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Artifact
The artifact that I have chosen for the Diversity & Inclusion competency is from OGL 350: Diversity and Organizations. I chose to use this artifact because it is an example of taking a
how to handle diversity conflicts within organizations. As we learned on the conflict management page, conflict is inevitable. There is certain to be the occasional conflict and sometimes that may be related to diversity so it is important that we understand how to handle it. I learned a lot of lessons about diversity in OGL 350 and I think that managing and learning how to avoid cultural conflicts was one of the most beneficial.
how to handle diversity conflicts within organizations. As we learned on the conflict management page, conflict is inevitable. There is certain to be the occasional conflict and sometimes that may be related to diversity so it is important that we understand how to handle it. I learned a lot of lessons about diversity in OGL 350 and I think that managing and learning how to avoid cultural conflicts was one of the most beneficial.
Reflection
Diversity and Inclusion in Organizational Leadership
Before this program, I had next to no knowledge of how to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. I believe that the inclusion of this competency in the Organizational Leadership has been very beneficial to me and many other aspiring leaders because we live in a nation that is considered to be a melting pot. Not to mention the fact that many large organizations are becoming more and more involved with globalization and expanding their business into markets where our social norms and expectations are different from their own. I believe that diversity and inclusion directly relate to organizational leadership because of how present they are in most modern day corporations and organizations. I believe that this competency has provided me with the necessary tools to contribute to many diverse organizations.
Personal Growth & Development
After completing the majority of this program, I can say with certainty that I have a much firmer grasp on the skill of communicating with people who originate from different backgrounds than mine. Something that I didn't expect to learn from this program and from this competency specifically was how to appropriately communicate with people from different cultures while traveling. I didn't travel much as a kid, so traveling as much as I can while I am a young adult has been a big emphasis for me. I want to experience all sorts of cultures throughout my life, but if I wish to do so internationally, then I must understand how to appropriately and respectfully interact with other cultures. The most recent place that I went where I had to apply cross-cultural skills and be culturally sensitive was Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.