CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND ITS IMPACT ON LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 9(A Youthful Perspective))

I am developing interest in cultural diversity, and what impact it has on us as emerging leaders, and how we can use the experiences and knowledge gained to develop our leadership skills and abilities. It is often said that striving for excellence is the key to becoming a great leader.

I believe that leadership does not have a fix definition, and it changes based on one’s own perspective of leadership. The perspectives of leadership can also change based on one’s own culture taking in to consideration its uniqueness, and understanding multi-culture is important in leadership development.

A sustainable advantage of globalization depends on the skills and abilities of a leader who can manage diversity. In pursuit of leadership effectiveness in today’s globalize world, We need to be able to understand, and manage culturally diverse setting effectively. Meeting a wide range of people brings different challenges and advantages in terms of ideas, creativities, innovation, and style while erasing any feelings of racism, sexism, or ageism. As stated, one variable that should be considered in leadership is cultural context. (Gutierrez, Spencer & Zhu, 2012).

One of the greatest challenges as a leader is embracing diversity which could mean creating an atmosphere where all the people you lead can feel valued, respected, and have the same opportunities as others. Diversity is the key to turning weak areas into strong areas, and only when a leader realizes this can he/she transform a group into a team.

Diversity also develops a leader Human Resource Capacities, and provides a great opportunity to cultivate some soft skills such as communication, and people skills that allows you to understand others and develop some good team skills.

I have come to the conclusion that to be a good leader, you must embrace cultural diversity which simply means tolerating people who are different, actively welcoming, seeking information, creating a team spirit, and including people who are different from you.