Managing a Diverse Team for Optimal Results
The main role of a leader is to enable their team to achieve the most they can. This requires ensuring that every team member is fully engaged and fully utilized. In today’s diverse workplaces, this is easier said than done!
Diversity can be measured in an infinite number of ways – whether regarding marginalized groups, different cultures, different communication styles, or simply the fact that everyone has different life experiences that drive diversity of perspective. The more diverse a team, the more challenging it will be for the leader to find ways to ensure the full engagement and motivation of team members, but the greater the potential benefit for doing so.
Hurdles in Managing a Diverse Team
Communication would be easy if it didn’t involve people! Since so much of leading is about ensuring clear communication and direction, the same can be said of leading.
People have different communication styles and preferences
Communication styles can be categorized and described in many different ways. The method I find the most useful is the communication color scheme. While many authors have written about this method, I do not know who deserves credit for its origin. This method breaks communication preferences into four categories;
Red: Action-oriented, impulsive, wants clear short-term objectives.
Yellow: Empathetic, intuitive, values human relationships.
Green: Creative, conceptual.
Blue: Precise, analytical, prefers consistency and logic.
It is important to understand the preferred style of the people you need to communicate with – your team members, your peers, your bosses, your customers… The challenge is that people who prefer one type of communication will find another style annoying or even offensive! To optimize results, you need to get over this hurdle!
People are motivated by different factors
While communication style defines a great deal of how to interact with individuals, the leader also must recognize that people respond differently to given situations. The leader needs to determine how to get over the motivational hurdle and motivate the greatest number of people. Often this requires multiple approaches to motivation.
People respond differently to being given direction
Many people prefer being given a lot of latitude in determining how to complete a task or set of responsibilities. Others desire to be told very prescriptively what needs to be accomplished – either due to inexperience or preference. The leader needs to understand what factors empower those who want to be empowered, as well as know who requires more direction.
People are not purely objective
They have conscious and unconscious biases and can react emotionally rather than in a values-driven manner. An adept leader needs to tackle this hurdle as well! One of the key responsibilities of a leader is to maintain the stability of an operation and diffuse explosive or emotional situations. Doing so often requires emotional intelligence and the use of empathy and coaching techniques to help team members see better paths.
People see things through the lens of their personal experience
Their lens will also change over time as their experiences change. As no two people have the same set of life experiences, this means that every workplace is, in a sense, actually diverse!
All of this means that a leader must be very flexible in communication approach to team members and use different leadership styles and motivations fluidly. How is a leader supposed to optimize results through all of these factors?
Drive Full Utilization Through Inclusivity
Ultimately, ensuring that all team members are engaged and utilized means that the leader must be adept at driving inclusivity. An inclusive workplace is one where all team members feel comfortable contributing their opinions, skills, and knowledge, no matter to which societal subgroups they identify.
The ‘secret recipe’ for enabling the best results from a team and getting past the hurdles mentioned above is to drive the feeling of inclusivity amongst the team members. Here are some ways to do so!
You as the leader must be 100% consistent in your role-modeling of the behavior you want to see from others. You must be emotionally controlled and always have a values-driven response when the ‘stuff hits the fan.’ Your behavior must exemplify behavior that will allow others to feel valued and welcomed while reinforcing the needs of the business.
You need to understand the different communication preferences of your team members. There are many training packages and tools that will help reveal your team members' communication styles. From that information, you can determine how to most effectively communicate with each individual on your team. Note that the facts, direction, and values embedded in the communication need to be consistent, but the style can vary to enable the best results. For example, if someone prefers a ‘red style’ of communication, use that style when working with them. But do not expect someone else who considers this style of communication as rude to respond well. Know your team!
Help the team understand what unconscious biases are and that they have biases – just like every other human being! Enable the great reveal for team members to understand their unconscious biases (in a private manner!). This will then help people understand that they can have a better experience if they manage their own unconscious biases.
Use a flexible approach to recognition to account for people’s preferences in how they are recognized for doing a great job. Recognition, when done correctly and reflective of the team member’s preferences, is effective motivation.
Get to know your team members – without prying! Listen to them when they talk to you and remember their concerns, aspirations, and personal hurdles. Be kind and care about them as people. Being kind and caring does not equate to being a pushover or their BFF, as you must be able to navigate the difference between being kind and maintaining accountability. Maintain your private boundaries.
One of my former bosses had a reputation for being ‘so kind.’ Those who felt that way were missing the point. Yes, she was a wonderful and caring person - one of my favorite bosses - however, she knew where the line was, and when she needed to be direct, she was as direct as the situation required to ensure full understanding. She was amazingly effective as a leader. Her team loved her and yet fully understood that she would hold us appropriately accountable for delivering the needed results.
Be on the lookout constantly for unnecessary friction between team members. Some friction may be needed as team members go about the various work processes tug of war between employees, departments, or groups of stakeholders – and growing in their own abilities. However, much of the friction that is experienced is due to miscommunication, inaccurate assumptions, biases, and other unnecessary, but real, sources – particularly in these days of indirect communication methods like email, text, and, my favorite, flaming arrows, which can easily be incomplete and misinterpreted.
Yes, communication needs to be concise or it won’t get read, however, it must also be complete! Generally, a 140-character tweet is a horrible way to relay complex directions!
Utilizing empathy, and expanding your emotional intelligence will make all of this go smoother. Indeed you need strong emotional intelligence to detect team members’ emotions and preferences, be able to read a room, and respond in a manner that will optimize results in both the short and long term.
