Social Identity: Knowing Yourself, Leading Others

Hannum

• Publisher: Center for Creative Leadership Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781604910001
• eBook ISBN: 9781604917406
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

The context of leadership has changed. Traditionally, leaders worked in organizations in which people largely shared a common culture and set of values. Today, leaders must bring together groups of people with very different histories, perspectives, values, and cultures. The people you lead are likely to be different from you and from each other in significant ways. Leaders today need an awareness of social identity, their own and that of others.

Mapping Your Identity

Creating a map of your identity is a way to capture and articulate how you see yourself. You can look clearly at your obvious, surface-level identity and then begin to dig deeper. This can be very useful in exploring how others perceive you as a leader—who will feel more at home with you, who will give your words more weight, and so on. Your identity map should include the three components discussed in the previous section: given identity, chosen identity, and core identity.

Look at the sample map on page 14. Then follow the instructions to map your own identity, using the blank map on page 16.

Instructions

1. In the outer ring, write words that describe your given identity: the attributes or conditions that you had no choice about, from birth or later. You may want to include your nationality, age, gender, physical characteristics, certain family roles, possibly religion. Examples include female, only child, forty-eight, tall, blind, African American, cancer patient, widow.

2. In the next ring, list aspects of your chosen identity. Consider including your occupation, hobbies, political affiliation, where you live, certain family roles, possibly religion. Examples are cyclist, mother, engineer, expatriate, college graduate, wife, leader, New Yorker, Buddhist.

3. In the center, write your core attributes—traits, behaviors, beliefs, values, and skills that you think make you unique as an individual. Select things that are relatively enduring about you or that are key to who you are today. For example, you may see yourself as funny, artistic, kind, conservative, attentive, creative, impatient, musical, family focused, assertive.

4. After you complete your map:

__	Underline the items that are important to you personally. These are likely to be the terms you would use to describe yourself.
+	Put a plus sign beside the items that you believe contribute to your ability to lead effectively in your organization.
–	Put a minus sign beside the items that you believe detract from your ability to lead effectively in your organization.
?	Put a question mark beside the items that may vary in how they affect your leadership ability, depending on context.

Interpreting Your Map

Refer to your map while answering the following questions. They will help you examine your identity in more depth.

1. When you look at the underlined items on your map, what trends do you see? Are they mainly part of your given, chosen, or core identity?

2. When you look at the items with pluses, minuses, and question marks, what trends do you see? Are they mainly part of your given, chosen, or core identity?

3. Of the aspects with pluses, minuses, and question marks, which are things you have in common with other people in the organization? Which are things that only you or a very small number of people possess? What are the leadership implications?

4. What aspects of your identity help you make connections with people at work? What aspects of your identity get in the way of making connections with people at work? What gives you the impression that this is the case?

5. Are there aspects of your identity ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Social Identity in Organizations
• Understanding Social Identity
• Components of Identity
• Mapping Your Identity
• Understanding Other Identity Perspectives
• Social Identity and Power
• Advice for Leading in the Context of Difference
• Going Forward with Awareness
• Suggested Readings
• Background
• Key Point Summary