Chapter Three
Ensuring Leadership Commitment to Diversity
Leveraging diversity as a vital strategic military resource will require the commitment, vision, and know-how of leadership, as well as an organizational plan for achieving the desired outcomes. Two different but related paths will need to be taken. One involves following through on EO principles and practices. The Commission’s recommendations in this area will help the Armed Forces systematically develop a demographically diverse leadership that reflects the forces it leads. The second path involves the new, broader understanding of diversity, which includes yet goes beyond demographics. Many of the Commission’s recommendations are related to both of these aspects of diversity. This chapter addresses what the Commission believes are its most far-reaching recommendations. They are the needed changes that will most securely set DoD and the Services on a path toward reaping the benefits of diversity.
Diversity Leadership Must Become a Core Competency Recommendation 2— To enhance readiness and mission accomplishment, effectively leading diverse groups must become a core competency across DoD and the Services. To implement this recommendation, •
a. Leadership training at all levels shall include education in diversity dynamics and training in practices for leading diverse groups effectively.
•
b. DoD and the Services should determine the framework (e.g., curriculum, content, methods) for how to inculcate such education and training into leader development, including how to measure and evaluate its effectiveness.
Both the Commissioners and guest speakers from corporate and military backgrounds believe that diversity has the potential to increase mission capability. However, to be effective, members of a broadly diverse unit or the entire force must be led in ways that value and include their differences while minimizing any negative influence that differences can have. Effective practices for leading a diverse group, referred to here as diversity leadership, address how leaders at all ranks and organizational levels shape the effect that diversity has on the forces under their command. Diversity lead-
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