The More Diversity, The Harder It Is

I kick off my workshop on managing diverse teams with a question:

“What do you find challenging about managing a diverse team?” 

Because while diversity makes your team stronger and more effective, it doesn’t make it easier to manage. 

When you interact with people who come from different experiences, you don’t know the impact your behavior will have on one another. You will step on people’s toes, and have your toes stepped on. If you want everyone on your diverse team to thrive, you’ll need to navigate these interpersonal differences. 

And you’ll need to learn how everyone’s differences interact with your organization’s underlying systems. 

Are the norms and policies that work best for you bumping up against what other employees need? When do you hold meetings? (Avoid kids’ drop-off time.) How do you acknowledge holidays from different cultures? (Check those staff retreat dates against the Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu calendars.) What activities do you sponsor for social time? (Not everyone drinks…and some must avoid alcohol entirely.)

You’ll ultimately need to examine every aspect of the organization. Find and fix the root causes of inequity, and reduce bias in hiring, compensation, and promotion.

Yes, it’s a lot of work. 

You can’t just do the same thing for everyone. You have to think about what individuals need. 

But here’s the thing: that’s actually what good managers do, period.

All teams are diverse. Even if it’s not racially diverse, your team contains a range of genders, religions, working styles. People need different accommodations, different types of feedback, different cultural habits. 

And when you focus on meeting all those individual needs, you begin to leverage the benefits of the diversity on your team. 

It takes practice and resilience to develop the skills to manage diverse teams.

But they happen to be the same skills you need to manage any team well.