Leadership and Multicultural Competency

Multicultural Competency Cultural Competency and Group Leadership Group leadership is important, in that a group needs to be cohesive. Without the right leadership there will be no cohesion, which can lead to the failing of the group (DeLucia-Waack, Kalodner, & Riva, 2013). While leadership does not seem particularly difficult for many people, there are many different facets to leadership that have to be addressed. One of these facets is multicultural competency.

This means that a good leader must be careful to understand each person in the group and his or her culture, in order to take that culture into account when it comes to making the group work well together (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005). The cohesion of any group is difficult enough without cultural issues, but the gaps can be bridged when there is a good leader available. Learning to address multicultural issues can be taught, but some of it is also intuitive in nature (DeLucia-Waack, Kalodner, & Riva, 2013).

This is important to consider, because some people are simply better leaders -- and more natural at leading -- than others. They take to the role more comfortably, and they have people who want to follow them. People who are leaders get and keep that title because they collect followers. People are drawn to them, and those people choose to follow them because they feel comfortable with them and are interested in what they have to say.

That is different from being a manager, as a manager generally gives orders that other people have to follow. Leaders are more likely to work with their followers, instead of just giving orders and remaining behind a desk or in an office while those orders are carried out (DeLucia-Waack, Kalodner, & Riva, 2013). Even the most charismatic leaders, though, can alienate followers if they are not culturally sensitive.

That is why multicultural leadership is so important, and why it must be addressed by leaders even before they start forming groups or collecting followers. Culture is something that is ingrained in the majority of people. They grow up with it, and they generally embrace it -- or at least parts of it. However, a good leader must also be very careful to actually understand a person's culture, and to do that for each person in the group.

There is a distinct difference between learning about and appreciating someone's culture, and making what he or she knows about that culture into a stereotype. It is not always easy to avoid those kinds of issues, but by being aware of culture and its stereotypes, a good leader can avoid making those stereotypes part of the group (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005). The leader must not only avoid these stereotypes himself or herself, but must also make sure that the entire group avoids them.

To do that, the group must be cohesive and culturally sensitive, so that everyone works together and appreciates what each person in the group brings to the table (DeLucia-Waack, Kalodner, & Riva, 2013). Some people in the group may feel uncomfortable around people of a particular culture, and it is the leader's job to reduce that discomfort. Professionalism is vital, as is helping others in the group understand specific cultures.

That can be done through education and examples, and also simply through getting to know everyone in the group to see they are "not like that" when it comes to cultural stereotypes and beliefs that may have been held about the way particular cultures.