Teams’ Diversity is an Opportunity for the Development of any Organization

The concept of respect for diversity in today's world clearly comes to the fore – also in the area of processes taking place on the labor market and within organizations. In my opinion, diversity is one of the most important resources of the company, which gives it a competitive advantage and can greatly improve and enrich everyday processes. In addition, properly used diversity pays off by attracting the best talent on the market, good relations in the team and a general sense of satisfaction among employees. There is probably nothing more important than the opportunity to actively participate in the life of the company, freely express our opinions and a sense of agency, which gives meaning to our daily duties.

In this article, I would like to focus on the diversity aspect on the example of my international team –Services at 迪堡 and give you my practical observations on the huge benefits of the so-called Diversity & Inclusion activities.

The paradox of diversity in corporate terms

The first topic that I would like to draw attention to at the very beginning is a kind of paradox – when thinking about the concept of diversity, especially in the corporate sense, we usually focus on a few selected underrepresented groups. We usually pay a lot of attention to gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. These are without a doubt extremely important groups of employees, and Diversity & Inclusion activities addressed to them are very much needed, but we must not forget that the diversity criteria are much broader. Diversity for me is first of all a variety of personality types, with different professional and life experiences, or an array of distant age groups, etc. Moreover, in my opinion, there is still too little conversation about people with disabilities, and this group can give us a completely different, very valuable perspective on many issues. Therefore, it is worth to constantly expand activities focused on care for diversity, so that it includes all groups of employees without exception.

Advantages of diverse teams

Thanks to the proper use of diversity, we can create the right conditions for unhindered development for each of our employees. This approach then translates into dynamic business development and gaining a competitive advantage. Most studies clearly show that diverse teams are more effective and achieve better results. This is certainly because of the value of confronting different points of view. However, there is also a lesser obvious advantage of working with a diverse team – it is much easier to make difficult decisions. When making important decisions, time is often crucial, and even a not-so-perfect decision is better than none. This process can be facilitated by a diverse team, which gives a fairly high level of certainty that as many aspects of these aspects and possible consequences of a given decision have been taken into account. In my experience, using different points of view of our team, we made all decisions much faster and very rarely turned out to be wrong. You have to admit that this situation gives great comfort and additional fuel for action.

Corporate policy or manager's initiative?

In order to properly manage diversity, the company should not rely only on declarations, but implement real actions that fit into the entire culture of the organization. Many corporations have their own theoretical guidelines for diversity and inclusiveness. The basic rule is, for example, to show mutual respect and not to discriminate. However, when it comes to specific recommendations and actions, in our part of the world they are usually very limited and concern a few specific groups – for example, it is often the increase in the participation of women, especially in managerial positions. This is a first, very important step, but in my opinion it is not enough. However, it seems difficult to write diversity expectations and actions for all groups into formal company policies. Therefore, the most important thing is still an open approach and understanding of the managers themselves. It is they, at every level of the organization, who have the direct and greatest impact on the shape of their teams, and their initiatives can initiate real changes. Therefore, I believe that every organization should put much more emphasis on training its managers in diversity management and skillful use of the advantages of their team.

The perspective of an international team manager

Let's stay a bit longer with leaders and their role in building a diverse team. The last few years have clearly shown that working with a team performing duties remotely is possible, but it has its own specific requirements (I wrote about it in my previous publication ). Leading an international team, including my team at Diebold Nixdorf, has always had similar characteristics. Working remotely, in an international, diverse environment, is undoubtedly demanding, but also very rewarding. I am convinced that success lies primarily in the manager himself – from his personal experience and building his own attitude towards diversity, through the development of a proper concept of inclusive management and recruitment of team members, to a fair distribution of responsibilities between employees and a way of communication adapted to each of them.

Reaching back in time, my first experience of diversity, which helped me a lot in my later role as a manager, I gained as a fifteen-year-old during a six months expedition aboard the sailing ship "Pogoria", as part of the International Class Afloat of Captain Krzysztof Baranowski. The youth crew consisted of 10 people from each country - the USA, the Soviet Union and Poland. It was also the first time I experienced different cultures, lifestyles and ways of seeing the world. We differed a lot, but thanks to the mutual willingness to communicate, a real, harmonious crew was created. In retrospect, I would recommend such an experience to all young people who want to get to know and understand other cultures and feel their potential.

Another experience, which in turn I recommend to students, is to get involved in working with the international student environment – in my case it was active participation in the International Association of Students in Economics and Commercial Sciences AIESEC . Within five years, I managed to take part in the organization of dozens of smaller and larger events – conferences, trainings, congresses or integration meetings. The largest of them was the AIESEC International Congress in 1996, which gathered over 2500 participants from all over the world in Poland. Being a Vice President responsible for External Relations I had a real opportunity to lead teams consisting of even several dozen nationalities. I still remember the impression when I realized that we were able to achieve a lot together – despite the fact that we were divided by language, country of origin and culture, we were united by a common goal and willingness to act.

As I mentioned, all these experiences were very useful in my professional career – after starting work at Diebold Nixdorf I was asked to create a service region East (originally including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, and after a short time also Russia, Ukraine and over 20 other countries covered by partners). Previously, teams in these countries were managed locally and differed in terms of organizational structure, processes, services offered and tools used. My peers in other regions most often built their teams according to experience, which almost always meant managers from the largest country in the region. However, while building the structure from scratch, I intuitively decided that my direct team must be international and include representatives of each country.

Originally, I wanted to achieve two main goals: firstly, to show due respect to individual countries, and secondly, I wanted to have my direct subordinate in each country (if only because of language barriers). It quickly turned out that such a construction brings much more advantages than I had previously assumed. First of all, the team could have been formed from among the company's employees, not from outsiders. This was a very strong message, giving everyone a great sense of co-responsibility for the effects of our work, and thus – greater commitment. We also all benefited from different points of view, different education and different experiences of team members. Despite many internal and external challenges, we were able to achieve our goals together. Our margin ratios, the quality of our services and the motivation and commitment of our entire department have improved significantly. We could all rely on each other, which is not always so obvious in the world of large corporations.

Some general tips for leaders

From the perspective of the last 5 years, during which I managed a very diverse team, I can distinguish a few important principles that always pass the exam:

1.??????The basic principle is to be open to different points of view. I never assume my infallibility and force my ideas. I also give the right to vote to all team members. As a result, the decision is our common – the group feels empowered and responsible for the implementation and effects.

2.??????I give myself and my team the right to make mistakes (and learn from them) – thanks to this, my employees are not afraid to make decisions and take responsibility on their own.

3.??????I try to adapt the type of tasks to the types of personality and individual needs – I am well aware that in my team there are people who are very efficient in creating a vision and strategy, but in turn the implementation process itself causes them problems. Other people prefer to work with a lot of data and are great at constantly monitoring performance indicators. The key to success is to get to know your team and choose functions to the talents of a given employee. Many times I witnessed the transformation of an average or even weak employee into a "star" of the team after assigning him tasks adequate to his skills.

4.??????I adapt the way of communication and management to individual needs – this is the basis, but many managers in the heat of everyday tasks forget about it and follow the usual schemes. It is worth remembering that, for example, sending an e-mail with a command may bring the expected effect only to part of the team, the rest may expect a conversation and a broader outline of the background, and to better understand the purpose of the task.

5.??????It is similar with controlling the tasks performed – frequent checking of progress on some will have a demotivating effect, and others actually need it, because it allows them to feel the support of the supervisor and confidence that they are working properly.

6.??????I care about the balance between work and private life of employees and the so-called well-being. ?The period of pandemic and remote work has particularly increased the challenge in this area. The first is taking care of the mental state of employees – many people have not endured the pandemic well, often struggling with lowered mood or depressive states. The second challenge was to recognize the depressed mood in employees, which was certainly hindered by remote work and much less face-to-face contact. As a result, we lead a team that may not be in the best mental shape, while having very limited opportunities to identify the problem at all. Here, similarly as in making decisions, a very good strategy seems to be the honesty and openness of the manager. It's a good idea to share your ways of dealing with issues with your closest colleagues and proactively making sure your team is at full strength to meet the tasks at hand. In my opinion, a partnership, relational approach and acceptance for moments of weakness is probably even more important today than traditional forms of motivation.

Some of the methods of building the involvement of a diverse team presented above, are well known, but their effectiveness is constantly changing. There is no doubt that the managers must constantly improve their ways of working and adapt them to a world that is changing ever faster and more radically.

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I would love to hear your experiences and tips related to diversity management. Feel free to discuss in the comments.