The Importance Of Perspective and Diversity in Leadership

For the month of March, we are focusing on perspective. From learning how to change your own perspective to being more considerate of how other people see things, we will compile relevant articles, blogs, and more to help you expand your perspective.

Last week we tackled how diverse perspectives help at work with articles highlighting the importance of diverse ideas in successful campaigns and the role that empathy can play in a business, too. Both diversity and empathy are key components to long-term success (one might say in life AND work) because they bring about creativity, community, and so much more.

This week we have compiled several resources that discuss why being open to other perspectives is a key component to being a successful leader.

The Reasons Why Perspective and Diversity Matter

Forbes published an excellent opinion piece titled “Why Understanding Other Perspectives Is A Key Leadership Skill” and the author, Steffan Surdek, explains: “there’s great value in recognizing different perspectives in conversations because these enable us to hear and react to things very differently. One of my close friends often says: ‘Change how a situation occurs to you, change how you will respond to the situation.’”

Surdek continues on to explain how our perspectives are not always reality and that it’s important to realize that each individual has their own perspective. Once you begin to consider how others may see a situation or problem, you can then more creatively engage a solution or a problem and come to a conclusion that works for everyone.

Another opinion piece from Yale Insights considers a similar question: What do leaders need to understand about diversity? Here the author, Victoria Brescoll, explains that diversity can’t be a separate program to be successful. Instead, diversity (at all levels) must be integrated everywhere. It should be a “lens for looking at, identifying, developing, and advancing talent.” So the key for successful leadership is to implement respect for and consideration of diverse thoughts and ideas from the start (the hiring process) all the way to the top (big decision making).

Don’t Just Consider Perspectives Like Your Own

The Surdek article mentioned above rightly notes that it is important to not just seek perspectives that are similar to your own. Doing so will simply reinforce a singular perspective instead of helping you broaden your ability to consider others. And as this blog reiterates, “Without diversity of thought, innovation is thwarted, initiatives may stall, and you alone cannot save your organization. You need to approach issues with a number of perspectives to be able to see the whole truth.”

Not sure where to start? This article has a few easy tips for questions to ask yourself and your team to initiative deeper conversations and better diversity of thought right away.