Leadership is shaped not only by skills and experience, but also by personal identity, lived experience, and positionality. Understanding how social identities influence leadership can help leaders better navigate workplace dynamics, build stronger relationships, and create more inclusive environments where people feel heard and supported.
Inclusive Leadership: Understand Your Intersecting Identities to Better Serve Others is an Academic Impressions course designed to help participants reflect on how social identities, positionality, and power influence leadership styles and workplace interactions. Through reflection, guided discussion, and practical application, participants explore how identity shapes leadership and decision-making in higher education settings.
Participants explore topics including:
- Reflecting on how social identities and lived experiences influence leadership approaches
- Understanding positionality, power, and privilege in professional and leadership settings
- Identifying how identity shapes workplace relationships, communication, and leadership effectiveness
- Examining opportunities and challenges that arise from leadership power dynamics
- Applying insights about identity and positionality to real leadership situations and workplace challenges
- Strengthening inclusive leadership practices that support collaboration, understanding, and organizational effectiveness
The course includes reflective exercises, peer discussion, and leadership scenarios to help participants better understand how identity and power influence workplace interactions and how leaders can respond more thoughtfully and inclusively to challenges. Participants are encouraged to apply these concepts to real leadership situations and everyday workplace decision-making.
This resource is especially valuable for faculty leaders, supervisors, department chairs, managers, administrators, and higher education professionals seeking to strengthen inclusive leadership, self-awareness, and workplace effectiveness.
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