1. One of the worst things in leadership is to create an echo chamber around you where only those who agree with your point of view are allowed into your inner circle. Those with honest but different ideas are punished with exclusion. Every other person suppresses their convictions.
2. However what causes this may not be as straightforward as many may think. The leader may have been betrayed in the past by those he trusted. His first experience with a difference in opinion may have come through a very cantankerous person with the intention to break cohesion.
3. By removing the scorner, strife did cease and there was great cohesion within the group and through the power of agreement, great things were achieved. His institutional memory of “diversity” is therefore negative and makes him shy away from such opposing viewpoints.
4. The leader has to mature to discern between diversity in opinion and those who are divisive and simply want to impose their negativity on the group. This is the thin divide that every leader must master, the art of discerning spirits to know who has come for chaos or progress.