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CHAPTER 11: DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY 339
associate effective leadership with a top-down command-and-control process,
women’s interactive leadership seems appropriate for the future of diversity and
learning organizations. The following example describes how one female leader
drew on her experience working with theater productions to provide interactive
leadership that enabled her organization to be more creative and adaptable.

IN THE LEAD Linda St. Clair
“When I was at my best in the corporation, I helped the people who reported to me get
what they needed to be effectively creative,” Linda St. Clair says. St. Clair, who served
as a successful personnel manager for manufacturing in a major technology fi rm, is
profi led in Leadership Can Be Taught, published by Harvard Business School Press.
St. Clair’s experience as a corporate leader relied on the same qualities she
used as an artist-director of theater productions. Both required working effectively
within a dynamic field of relationships and the ability to “give the work back to the

group.” Effective leaders, she believes, know when to let go and allow people to
make critical decisions, acting not as a commander but rather as a coach, guide,
mentor, and ally. She applied the idea of rehearsal and practice to encourage people
to try out “what ifs” and have fun with their work.
At the same time, St. Clair paid attention to managing the interactions of every-
one on the team. Just as in a theater production, “all must create something new,”
she says of corporate work. “While helping each part to move in a common direc-
tion, the director [leader] needs to be as creative as possible, honoring everyone’s

artistic power—and all the conflicts thereof. Tough decisions have to be made, and
the [leader] must be willing to do so—jointly when possible—which means a lot of
58
interaction . . . .”
Although the values associated with interactive leadership, such as inclusion,
relationship building, and caring, are generally considered “feminine” values, in-
teractive leadership is not gender-specific. These values are becoming increasingly

valuable for both male and female leaders. Today’s fl atter, team-based organiza-
tions are no longer looking for top-down authority figures but for more collab-

orative and inclusive approaches to leadership. 59
Again, the interactive leadership style is not exclusive to women. Any leader
can learn to adopt a more inclusive style by paying attention to nonverbal behavior
and developing skills such as listening, empathy, cooperation, and collaboration. 60

Global Diversity

One of the most rapidly increasing sources of diversity in North American or-
ganizations is globalization, which means that leaders are confronting diversity
issues across a broader stage than ever before. To handle the challenges of global
diversity, leaders can become aware of the sociocultural environment and develop
cultural intelligence to know how to behave appropriately.

The Sociocultural Environment
For organizations operating globally, social and cultural differences may provide

more potential for difficulties and conflicts than any other source. For instance,
cultural factors have created problems for managers in some U.S. corporations
trying to transfer their diversity policies and practices to European divisions. Poli-
cies designed to address diversity issues in the United States don’t take into con-
sideration the complex social and cultural systems in Europe. Even the meaning