It’s certainly an interesting world we live in. During the last 50 years, air travel has opened up the world and transformed the cultural make up of our societies – and our workplaces. Having a mix of people within a business is a real asset and this includes different genders, cultures, beliefs and working styles.

Diversity brings together many perspectives, experiences and approaches to problem solving and if you can harness this in the right way, it can bring about exceptional results. And because people in our business reflect the society we live in, from a product, marketing and customer service perspective, being able to understand our mix of customers is an incredibly powerful tool.

It’s crucial to understand that it’s about not ticking boxes for a mix of genders, ages or nationalities. It’s wider than that. Because distinctive personalities and customs may cause conflict and an inability to work together in harmony to get the job done, leaders need to adapt their workforce around the pillar of diversity to ensure it is harnessed in the most productive way.

One of the best ways to ensure diversity works for your organisation is to start with the top down and create expectations and a model for behaviour in your leadership team. Yet it’s equally as important for people at any level to combine their relative strengths to create a team that’s infinitely more powerful than any one individual.

A workable way to do this is to empower a core group of advocates throughout your business who will live, promote and teach others about respecting and embracing diversity. Leaders are instrumental in aligning processes and ensuring that systems and behaviours are set. When others within the organisation begin living up to these standards, leaders need to follow their people and actively and continuously ensure diversity becomes ingrained into company culture.

Most importantly, don’t feel that once you have employed a mix of people that your work is done. Your workplace needs to be moulded and adapted to the style and strengths of your people – after all, they are employed to grow your business, so ensuring they work and grow together to produce exceptional results is an important priority.

The Team Management Profile continues globally to assist individuals and teams to achieve high performance through harnessing diversity.
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Author: Peter Robinson
Team Leadership Services