ASU Discovery Interviews & Shared Profile of Fluent Leadership Discussion

Together with your Learning Team, you will collectively create a profile of fluent leadership that draws from your own experiences as well as our course materials.

Step 1: Discovery Interviews

Each member of your team will conduct an interview with at least 1 other person who you feel embodies the traits of an effective communicator (this can be someone you currently work with or who you have worked/collaborated with in the past). You are open to creating your own questions, and to help get you started, you might consider questions such as:

• When have you experienced a biased form of communication that impacted you personally (around race, ethnicity, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) and how did you respond?
• How do you work to notice the different styles and preferences of those around you? How do you react when they are different from your own?
• How do you work to communicate effectively with others across cultural boundaries?

Step 2: Create a Shared Profile of Fluent Leadership

Using the 6 traits for fluent leadership that Hyun and Lee refer to in “Flex” as a framework for your profile (1) Self and Other-Awareness; 2) Adaptability, 3) Comfort with Ambiguity and Complexity, 4) Unconditional Positive Regard, 5) Innovation, and 6) Flexing across the Power Gap), co-create a shared profile of fluent leadership using specific examples from your interviews (you can use pseudonyms to protect identities) and your own experiences to illustrate each trait. Specifically, highlight the communication practices that illustrate and embody each of these traits. Conclude your portrait with 1 – 2 additional traits beyond the list of 6 traits that your team believes are also important for demonstrating fluent leadership and why.

Below is the interview questions answered:

1)When have you experienced a biased form of communication that impacted you personally (around race, ethnicity, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) and how did you respond?

As a female, and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve learned over the years that things will be said. Some of them are blatantly sexist or homophobic, but most of them are small and (seemingly) insignificant. Many of them come in the form of a “harmless joke”. People say things like, “That’s so gay”. Or men address me as “Girl”. It’s easy to shrug these things off, until the day that it’s not. The little things add up over time and can no longer be shrugged off. I’ve found that the difficult discussions need to be had. It’s not easy when you have to ask a person to respect you. But many of the offenders aren’t even aware that their words are hurtful and disrespectful, so communication usually goes a long way in changing their behavior.

2)How do you work to notice the different styles and preferences of those around you? How do you react when they are different from your own?

I know that the microaggressions I deal with as a white woman and a member of the LGBTQ+ community pale dramatically in comparison to what members the Black/Brown community deal with. But I can still use my own experiences to guide how I see and treat others. I always try to honor and respect the things that make a person different and unique. When I see someone using microaggressions, even if they don’t harm me personally, I try to inform them of how hurtful those words can be.

3)How do you work to communicate effectively with others across cultural boundaries?

One of the first rules I try to follow is to learn people’s names, how to spell them, and how to correctly pronounce them. It seems like a simple thing to do, but when someone mispronounces or misspells a name, it seems so disrespectful to me! A person’s name can be a huge part of their cultural identity, and the simple act of taking the time to learn it and use it properly can go a long way in showing them that you respect them as a person.

Another way I honor a person’s cultural differences is by learning more about them. I try to learn about things that may be sensitive to them. It’s another simple thing, and it can help avoid making “innocent” mistakes.

The bottom line is that every human being deserves respect and dignity. The easiest way to give that respect and dignity is to simply treat others the way you like to be treated.

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