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Certain Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Personal Characteristics (KSAOs) Are Required or Preferred for Diversity Leaders

• Key roles and responsibilities for diversity leaders include strategic leadership (including leading diversity programs/initiatives), stakeholder engagement, tracking diversity trends, and human resources–related activities.
• To carry out responsibilities within those categories, diversity leaders would ideally have the following KSAOs: interpersonal skills; business expertise; leadership skills; equal employment opportunity (EEO) and military equal opportunity, affirmative action, and diversity knowledge and skills; a driven personality and commitment to diversity; analytical abilities and skills; critical thinking and problem-solving skills; and multicultural competence.

Some KSAOs Can Be Improved Through Training and Education

• The scientific literature suggests that certain KSAOs identified as important for effective diversity leaders, such as personality and motivation, are very difficult to develop; interpersonal skills and leadership skills are somewhat difficult to develop; and problem-solving, communication, and technical skills (e.g., business procedures) are the easiest to develop. Those KSAOs less amenable to development should form the basis of selection of diversity leaders, while those KSAOs more amenable to development should be targeted for improvement as part of training and education.