How to Lead a Diverse Team

Here are ten top tips to help leaders support and drive teams, in a time when the workplace becomes more diverse and widespread than ever before.

1. Favourites are a no go

Did you know that one in three employees say their manager singles out favourites? Good leaders take the time to understand everyone on their team, regardless of differences in age, geography or experience, to find out what makes them tick and how they can best contribute. Crucially - everyone is different, so therefore generalising large groups of people is reductive and unhelpful.

2. Give feedback

People need to understand how they are performing and this is even more important in a diverse team. A team needs to be visible to each other to help generate better understanding when they cannot rely on cultural shortcuts. Social media and online tools can bring people together; video conferencing no longer has to cost lots of money so can be a very effective way of bringing groups together.

3. Understand the why

Understanding the why is so important for teams to work towards the common goal & to do this effectively. A team needs to have "all their arrows pointing in the same direction" so ensuring awareness of this is vitally important.

4. Positivity - Choose your attitude

Choosing a positive mental attitude will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the teams day to day, week to week and year to year. Be consistent and set the example to lead the way when it comes to this.

5. Have an open-door policy

Over a third of employees think their managers do not listen to their workplace concerns. Leaders may have to be more comfortable in making decisions with less information than they would like but that doesn’t mean their teams are equally comfortable.

Helping people be more comfortable with ambiguity is important. Different people like to raise issues in different ways, and not always in an open forum. The leaders’ job is to understand the important concerns and remove the barriers. Leaders need to be seen to be listening to, and acting on, the concerns of their teams.

6. Tackle conflict and build a common workplace culture

People need a set of ground rules that help them understand the expected consistencies amongst all the differences they experience, and to help deal with confrontation and conflict. Without solid ground rules, people won’t understand what they can expect and misunderstanding will often escalate into conflict. When describing effective leadership, employees do not point to the big, company-wide initiatives like values, but rather having a common set of guidelines for things like meetings and day-to-day conversations.

7. Communicate regularly to unify the team

Team members appreciate openness and sincerity. Sharing thoughts, feelings and rationale will help unify people from different backgrounds. Being upfront about the situation and involving people as much as possible in decision making engenders a sense of inclusion and will ensure everyone feels part of the same team. If they are not part of the process, the team won’t develop the understanding of the business they need to be effective.

8. Email is easily misunderstood

However you choose to communicate, a third of managers do not check what they are saying is being understood, for example, email is the wrong communication to carry the nuance of a complex message. Email has its place - it’s easy, efficient and fast, but a very poor channel if you want to make sure meaning is understood.

9. Treat others as you would like to be treated

One in three employees said that their managers damage their self-esteem. While employees aren’t looking for their manager to be their friend, they do expect courtesy, respect, honesty, and tact - and rightly so. For a project to succeed, team
members should feel valued and appreciated. Even discussions on difficult subjects should ultimately be positive and productive, not personal and demotivating. This is a universal basic of leadership that goes to the heart of team effectiveness – however diverse.

10. Set an example

Inevitably what the leader does, says and how they act is what the rest of the team will follow. It’s up to the leader to set the tone. If he or she doesn’t get the basics right - establishing the consistencies, motivating and supporting team members - it will be very difficult to create a effective team.

If you are looking for support leading or managing a team, we are able to offer 121 or workshop support regarding all types of subject matters.

Please visit us at: www.thetessgroup.com or contact us on 01604 210500