How should I manage employee diversity effectively?

You should embrace diversity, in all its forms; the more diverse your team, the better. At the same time, recognise that diversity brings with it many challenges for you as a leader.

For the most part, the basic principles of how to lead others apply regardless of who is involved, but they are not always the same when different cultures are involved.

Your organisation already may have formal diversity policies in place and, i so, you must be guided by what is stipulated in them. In general, your role as leader in this area is to:

• Constantly build your own knowledge and understanding of different perspectives, cultures and the needs of the disabled.
• Set the benchmark for others in terms of how you embrace diversity.
• Ensure that diversity awareness underpins all your efforts as a leader.
• Prevent any form of discrimination from taking place within your team.
• Challenge and change practices and procedures that restrict your efforts to manage diversity.

Practical measures you can put in place within your team to support the management of diversity include:

• Get to know all members of your team so that you understand their beliefs, expectations and motivations better.
• Have a clear plan as to how you will pro-actively manage diversity within your team. Do not leave it to chance.
• Ensure that diversity awareness training is provided for all and, in particular, forms part of the employee induction.
• Use your ongoing coaching and feedback sessions to help develop individual self-awareness, in terms of understanding their own culture, biases, prejudices, and stereotypes.
• Be open with your team about diversity. Discuss the matter regularly with them.
• Identify team goals in relation to diversity, then get your team members to agree clear principles and actions that will help make those goals a reality.
• Ensure that you allow equal opportunities in the recruitment, selection and promotion of your employees.
• Ensure that suggestions on how to improve diversity management is included as a heading on your employee suggestion form.
• Consider celebrating national days within your team, whereby individuals from different countries can celebrate and also teach others about their culture.
• Never allow any form of bullying or discrimination to go unchallenged.
• Maximise the use of team-based initiatives and ensure that the diversity of the team as a whole is reflected in those sub-teams.

Finally, do not manage diversity with the mind-set that it is a chore but, instead, recognize that a more diverse team is potentially a better team, as it brings a range of attributes, talents and perspectives not seen in a more homogenous group.