Chosen Position Within the Organization
Chris Roberts
LDR/531
March 12, 2013
Deanna Moats
Chosen Position Within the Organization I had to research positions within corporations and organizations to find where I felt I would fit. There were well known positions: CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), COO (Chief Operations Officer) and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). I thought the Marketing Officer seemed to really fit my type of leadership, until I read about a position, that even now, will be my focus to achieve in my career path. I realized that my chosen position for the organization will be the CDO (Chief Diversity Officer) an executive position that that guides the organization into creating a true diverse company. In my position as the Chief Diversity Officer , it will be my responsibility to promote diversity and intentionally integrating it within the organizations' new strategy and structure (Wikipedia). I feel that this position best suits my ability to lead the organization to be successful. It is through my experience personally and professionally that makes this role a perfect fit for me. With entering onto this new role, our organization will be one of few companies that have created this position in an effort to compete against the younger emerging corporations.

Leadership Style As I read about the four different leadership styles; Authoritarian, Paternalistic, Democratic and Laissez-faire, I think that I fall in to two of them. I believe that I lead Paternalistic and Democratically. I think being able to move in between two different types of leadership styles is important in today's business culture. Relying on just one style to get me through my career path is no longer viable and I believe doing such can only lead to holding me back. The Paternalistic leader style calls for an ability to lead and mentor my teams and the organization. When you look to create a diverse organization, it takes understanding the people and the cultures you are integrating into your organization, with that understanding comes the ability to empathize and relate to those you are looking to bring into your culture. In my new role I will look at the culture differences and the needs of those within that culture. There is nothing more discouraging to an individual than realizing that the company that "values diversity" doesn't even understand you or your individual needs. I once worked for such a company and I actually had to sit down with the Human Resource director and inform her that the company was stuck in a mindset from ten years ago. They had no benefits that were for me, they had just recently added birth control and in-vitro fertilization to their list of covered health benefits. Again, it is all about the cultures of your organization. Being able to lead while understanding and nurturing those needs is one thing I will strive to do within my new role at the organization. Along with the Paternal leadership type, I believe that I can also wear the hat of the Democratic leader. I look to empower my teams and leaders to give their input and decisions on creating the new strategies for our organization. As the new CDO, I need to look towards my leaders to help grow the diversity of our organization as a whole and from within. My trade off to this type of leadership is decisions can often be delayed and in times that a quick decision needs to be made I may need to resort to making the decision myself and not wait. The highlight to this type of leadership is that my team and my leaders are involved and have a greater ability to consult on our strategies and structure. It is important to me to create a culture that encompasses all types of innovative people. This type of leadership allows for that " father-figure" type of role but also allows for there to be a little delegation.

Assessment Identification As I took a few different assessments I learned