What diversity of thought means for leaders: Dahlia Stroud

Diversity of thought is believed to drive innovation, create environments which welcome constructive challenge and ultimately is believed to improve productivity. There are proven scientific benefits to enabling us to be ourselves, however it isn’t comfortable for everyone involved – particularly for leaders and the threat to their power.

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There are many mantras and memes which declare ‘if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you’ but this assumes that leaders want to be challenged and changed.

The levelling up agenda talks about driving equity through making space for marginalised individuals who have at some point been disadvantaged in their ability to succeed – a result of either preconceived social constructs or biased institutions which have restricted their access.

The part of the agenda which is perhaps the toughest is changing the behaviour of the leaders who are already in power. Many leaders have risen through the ranks based on what they see as their own merit, but are likely to also be beneficiaries of institutional bias that to some extent worked in their favour.

Through sponsorship, networks and experience they have built up a position of authority and credibility. With a lens on equity are we expecting leaders to suddenly demonstrate vulnerability, understand their areas of bias and change their style to include all voices in the room? Is there a role for organisations to support leaders in seeing that by reducing the authoritative power they have on their team, they can introduce an environment that becomes a safe space for fair challenge and learning.

Whilst it puts leaders in a more vulnerable position it gives the opportunity for a more productive team through creating diversity of thought. The result of a more collaborative working style is the leader has less autonomy and whilst the team in totality can become more productive, do leaders worry that their power is at risk?

The opportunity for organisations is to create a culture where leaders feel comfortable bringing the diversity agenda into their immediate team rather than talking holistically about how the company drive D,E and I - whilst in reality doing very little.

Leaders have a natural tendency to reiterate their role as leader of a team by either being more accredited, more knowledgeable or having more experience. Many leaders have felt the discomfort when interviewing a great candidate and getting that creeping feeling coming in ‘could this person be better than me?’

The opportunity for a leader is to embrace the chance to learn and see their team environment as one that can help them better themselves as well as develop their team – and drive business productivity. This has to be supported by an organisation that celebrates learning at all levels and that wants leaders to speak out about how diversity of thought creates business benefits whilst also challenging leaders to think more critically in their roles.

Dahlia Stroud is founder of Dahlia Stroud Consulting