Leadership and management training online helps us to avoid stereotyping which is pivotal to being successful at achieving real progress on the diversity and inclusion front. As leaders and managers, we don’t want our people to have preconceived ideas about us or the contribution we will or wish to make. In the same way, we need to acknowledge the destructive force of stereotyping anyone we come into contact with.
We must find ways that allow us to receive correct information about people as we establish relationships. The real knowledge and skill we acquire during leadership development online are that of genuine inquiry. This is a game-changer.
Breaking Down to Build Up
Diversity and inclusion courses online must focus on optimal interaction skills for leaders and managers as the best way to break down stereotypes and see people clearly. Acquiring a range of personal insights is important in relation to the self and others as part of this process. This is why models such as the Johari Window are used during leadership development online sessions. It becomes clear that it is essential to utilise the information that we know about ourselves and solicit information from others about things we don’t know as well. The more sources of information we are exposed to the better.
Introspecting on feedback obtained at leadership and management training online is used to stimulate and enhance our ability to bring into consciousness new insights about ourselves. We all have blind spots and things we do not really comprehend fully or understand. Feedback to ourselves and from others allows us to develop new useful perspectives and also spot opportunities for growth. We learn what we apply to ourselves; we should also apply to others, giving more latitude for personal and interpersonal discovery.
When we combine a willingness to share our insights and knowledge with others, this self-disclosure is not perceived as a leadership vulnerability. It is usually appreciated as a positive invite to others to do the same. This creates space for people to connect as we come to grips with things they know and don’t know. We must see interaction as a maturation process where gradually over time as there is more sharing and feedback, trust and confidence grow.
Diversity training unconscious bias also touches on these issues in terms of blind spots and hidden information that leads to the use of harmful stereotypes as we generalise and make inaccurate assumptions based on limited information quickly.
Creating the New
Leadership and management training online must ensure that the benefits of listening and asking questions must never be underestimated to increase clarity and understanding. This type of inquiring and orientation of genuinely wanting to know the perspective of others before we judge is paramount in establishing quality relationships. This leads naturally toward a leadership and management style where assessment and interpretations are offered in the form of making suggestions or asking questions. Leaders and managers move away from giving instructions as their natural right, given their underlying developing respect for the other.
To move away from stereotyping we need to be in constant search mode for new information and experiences. Diversity and inclusion courses online underscore this with the encouragement to value diverse thought towards unlocking prior fix ideas. Leadership and management training online will have achieved a lot if it teaches us to share our own thought processes openly, always focusing on the “why” of our views, decisions, choices, and actions. This will act as a constant invite to others to engage in quality and meaningful interaction that will break down the walls that prevent us from seeing each other clearly.
