Here's how you can cultivate a positive and inclusive team culture as a team manager.

It is important to set ground rules for team meetings. For eg:- Active Listening, Speak with Candor etc. A good practice is to write this down on the whiteboard before every critical team meeting. Deviations to the rules should be addressed quickly and fairly. And at least with newer teams, it is important to formally give everyone at the table a chance to speak to get all perspectives.

I've been fortunate to learn from amazing managers, and I aspire to lead like them one day. Though I've never been a manager myself, I understand it's a weighty responsibility, much like parenting. Establishing the right culture is super important —skills can be learned later. Also, when handling mistakes, prioritize how you respond, as it deeply impacts how you're perceived by your team. Approach these situations with empathy and a focus on learning rather than blame games. Show empathy for personal challenges, it builds TRUST (Very important again). Treat your team like family, build bonds over meals. Lead through connection, not control.

Lead with Respect: Treat all team members with fairness and respect. Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where everyone feels heard and valued. Celebrate Diversity: Embrace and appreciate differences in backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas. Promote Collaboration: Encourage teamwork and support mutual goals and achievements. Set Clear Expectations: Clarify roles, responsibilities, and goals to ensure everyone understands their contribution to the team.

Transparency at the top determines candor below. One of the things that you can practice as a leader is to frequently ask the team for advice/perspective with the question if you were in my situation what will you do? As a manager you need to encourage your team members to challenge you on ideas. The most powerful things that a team can do is to agree to disagree.

The first goal that I give most of my team members is how soon can you make my inputs and presence as a manager redundant. Back them whenever they need you, but encourage team members to join you in critical meetings. Especially with your second in commands, ask them to attend meetings/take decisions in your absence.

DEI is much spoken about but often not practiced in its entirety or true spirit. Some actions to take could be: - Create a safe space for ideation and discussion - Build psychological safety by not getting offended in the face of tough criticism or radically different ideas - Create some small working groups with different perspectives to drive key agenda items - Irrespective of tenure or personal comfort, engage with every member of the team and give them an opportunity to feel listened to and contribute meaningfully

Most often the root cause of conflicts in teams are lack of communication, interdependence of deliverables and simply human ego. It is important to resolve conflicts quickly whilst hearing everyone's point of view. Ask for solutions from the team and always go with the approach that is right for the organization and the team- not an individual.