What is Diplomatic Leadership? : How to possess it as one of the charming leadership styles?

Diplomatic leadership refers to a style of leadership that emphasizes tact, empathy, relationship building, and peaceful conflict resolution. It’s also about using soft skills to manage teams, clients, customers, and other stakeholders effectively. In the business context, it involves getting people to work with you rather than for or against you. Diplomatic leaders are known for their ability to handle sensitive situations with grace, encourage collaboration, and seek win/win solutions during negotiations.

Attributes of diplomatic leadership include:

1. Flexibility: Adapting to different situations and perspectives.
2. Verbal and Written Fluency: Communicating clearly and persuasively.
3. Attention to Detail: Recognizing that every action and word can convey meaning.
4. Negotiation Skills: Striving for agreements that serve the best interests of all parties involved.

This leadership style is particularly effective in fostering a collaborative and fair environment, inspiring action, and maximizing the strengths of each team member.

A classic example of diplomatic leadership is President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Faced with the threat of nuclear war, President Kennedy demonstrated flexibility, clear communication, and a focus on peaceful resolution. He engaged in careful negotiations with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, ultimately reaching an agreement that avoided conflict and served the best interests of both nations. This incident showcases how diplomatic leadership can navigate through high-stakes situations with tact and a commitment to finding mutually beneficial solutions.

From my previous article: “Miracle of Coaching III: Atip’s Coaching Can Help the Underdog”, I told a miraculous success story of my coaching client who was initially considered, “The underdog” in a high-ranking job competition and later became the winner for that role. 

One of his top strengths that we explored and discovered in the first coaching session was … “diplomatic leadership” skills. He agreed and believed whole-heartedly that he already possessed this charming leadership style. So, he leveraged this leadership quality as his USP (Unique Selling Point) while pitching his vision and qualifications in the pitching round to the panel of committee.

In my point of view, diplomatic leadership is the leadership style that makes use of good relationship to reach the win-win solutions, synergy or good collaborations for the best interests of all parties involved.

Atip’s 7-View Model of Coaching can also be applied for fostering diplomatic leadership skills as follows:

To become an effective diplomatic leader, you must first establish a good relationship with yourself or be congruent with yourself. In order to have good relationship with yourself, you must study, learn and understand yourself first.

Then, you can start establishing good relationship with others (your key stakeholders). In order to have good relationship with others, you must study, learn and understand others.

You also need to build good relationship with the relevant contexts such as the situations, circumstances, conditions and environment that you’re in or under the influence of. In order to have good relationship with the contexts, you must study, learn and understand the contexts.

In addition, you need to study, learn and understand the relationship between your key stakeholders and the contexts

Above all, you need to study, learn and understand the relationships in the whole system; i.e. the relationships among all (you, others, and contexts)

One of the main reasons why my client who was considered, “The underdog” could be the winner is… he could demonstrate his diplomatic leadership skills through his diplomatic style of speaking, presenting himself, and answering all challenging questions during the fierce pitching round.

So, thanks must go to his diplomatic leadership skills and style because they made such a big contribution to his miraculous victory!

Would you also like to possess this charming style of leadership? If you would, then let’s start establishing our coaching relationship together!