The role of leadership in creating a diversity-sensitive organization

The opportunity for personal growth that a focus on DSO development offers leaders is compelling, as it provides and requires new experiences and new ideas. Seasoned healthcare executives and their organizations are offered the opportunity for renewal-to see things in a new light and experience the organization, the service area, and each other differently. Researchers at the Gallup Organization, based on studies of more than 50,000 leaders in diverse industries, have identified the following seven demands of leadership: visioning, maximizing values, challenging experiences, mentoring, building a constituency, making sense of experience, and knowing one's self (Conchie 2004). To meet these demands with courage and conviction in the context of diversity is, perhaps, the ultimate healthcare leadership challenge in the foreseeable future.