First person discussion What do diverse leaders bring to an organization? Discuss the benefits and costs of lived experiences associated with sexism and racism faced by women and racial/ethnic minority leaders. How might this influence their exercise of leadership? Diverse leaders bring diverse voices to an organization. By having diverse leadership available and accessible to the diverse workforce, people for better represented and protected in the workplace. The lived experiences of women and minorities often push them to be more inclusive in their leadership styles because they know what it means to be received with bias and stereotypes. However, there are also costs to diverse leaders. They will often find themselves second-guessing their decisions, wondering if they will be taken seriously due to their own differences. There is also the feeling that evolves that a certain diversity is required for public image, and hiring takes place without thinking of who is actually best for the role from a career aspect, but instead from a diverse aspect. This happened to me when I worked under another female white CEO. Long story short, the CEO felt only a gay male could lead in a certain role, no questions asked, barring any of the team from promotion. This was due to her being pressured by outside forces that already disagreed with her leading a gay organization, even though the doors of that organization would have 100% closed had she not saved it from disastrous prior leadership. Not to mention the fact that she had been an advocate and leader in the HIV world for over 20 years, saving countless lives. No one seemed to care, all they saw was her gender and orientation. Her life experience as a woman who was receiving prejudice from many in the community controlled her decisions, causing vital staff to quit because she basically told them because of their gender and orientation, they had no room for growth in the organization. The pressures of life experiences can and will drive people to do things that may ultimately tear themselves down as leaders if they are not careful. We as leaders need to understand how to properly manage and respect our diverse workforces needs and recognize when we are allowing outside expectations and sexist/racist influences drive us to make decisions we regret later. Is there a feminine advantage? Do women leaders have innate abilities to connect that give them an advantage in transformational and collaborative leadership styles? According to Chin & Trimble (2015), women tend to be more personable and caring. They are more invested in their staff, warm, and approachable. They are more participative, though there is the belief that this is what is required of them because if they are too assertive like their male counterparts they receive more resistance (Chin & Trimble, 2015). There is certainly an advantage for women when it comes to transformational leadership and collaborative approaches in their leaders ...