#diversity #multicultural #ethnic — One of the viewers who saw the current episode of Clint Cora Motivational WebTV showing the highlights of the multicultural festival Carassauga emailed me and asked whether really successful people or even average individuals consider diversity to be important or not. This is a great question and discussion point so I will address it here as a blog post.
Actually, all good questions and comments should be posted on the comments section below the relevant blog or Facebook posts rather than emailed to me. This is because I would prefer that the entire community here can participate in interesting discussion points.
The sad fact is that we still have a long way to go in terms of diversity, for both visible minorities and non-minorities alike. Individuals usually do not really care about diversity while most organizations these days, especially coming from the human resources departments, do care.
But the other fact in reality is that the most successful people in any industry these days have excellent people skills. That is, they can interact really well with a variety of different people. And because many communities in North America have become so diverse and many companies are looking at global business, people skills will now imply skills working with people from different ethnic cultures, sexual orientations and degrees of disabilities. Diversity skills equals people skills.
Yes, the average person doesn’t recognize this yet. Many, including many in management, still see diversity as something that has to be tolerated rather than sometime that is positive to embrace. Meanwhile, the really successful people are embracing diversity because they know that there is a lot of business potential out there in diverse business environments. The exception may be those businesses which cater to only a very narrow customer group both ethnically and geographically.
The people who do not embrace diversity will simply be left in the dust by those who are more forward in their thinking. So it’s really your choice. Be left behind or capitalize on the realities of the diverse business environments out there.
To help organizations both corporate and college or university groups, one of my speaking program topics is on diversity. And remember, if you have a good comment or question, post it rather than email it. It along with my response should be shared with the entire community.
Hey Clint,
Wow!!! Amazing! Your article in reference to the question I posted to you not so much as a serious tone but…. Hey I’m thrilled in that I’ll take it as you valueing my input. You bet. I think I’ve had great potentials but really haven’t found ways to explore my best but as stated previously, I’m very encouraged by all you had to teach me. Guess it’s killing two birds with one stone if my communication with you impacts another individual out there to lead him or her in the world to achieving their long sought out goal.
At the end of my diversity talks, I surprise the audience by saying that I don’t really care if they embrace diversity or not. If they do not, they should at least keep in mind that their competitors (both companies and individuals) will and they should not be surprised if these competitors end up passing them. Remember, you ALL have competition. Given similar skills and experience, a candidate that has NO issues with any races or groups and demonstrates that he/she can work with any group effectively, will surface as the winner. So folks, it’s your choice.
Clint,
I couldn’t agree with you more in that a successful individual who values diversity should be different from one who doesn’t. The former would be someone who has a different quality in him or her. Needless to say, the richest man on earth Mr Bill Gates, I think is someone who highly values and respects diversity just by seeing the work he has done for so many ethnic background of people all over the globe. On the other hand, I think those who don’t value such virtue in people will one day feel and experience their deficit in one format or another.
Jenny
As I said, we still have a long way to go in diversity. Some folks are not as diverse oriented as they think they are. Many say they are just to be politically correct when in actual fact, they may have issues with certain ethnic groups. If these people want to be successful in diverse working environments, they better bone up on their diversity skills even if some of their issues had some validity.