Unlocking the potential of a diverse team

Diversity can offer your business many benefits – from a wider range of ideas and skills, to a broader range of experiences, contacts, and knowledge to draw upon. With all these different ideas and energies present in a team, sometimes it can be difficult as a manager to know how to use them. Here are 3 tips for unlocking the potential of your team and harnessing the power of their diversity. 

Unify under a shared purpose

People with different experiences and backgrounds are invariably likely to have different opinions on some things. While this is great for getting creative and encouraging innovation, it may sometimes cause tension or an inability to come to a solution. Ensuring that employees feel motivated by a shared common purpose while still being free to engage in debate means that they will be more likely to put differences aside and work together to achieve a goal.

Be welcoming and respectful

This can mean many things, from investing in diversity-related training for your team. To ensuring that you are always available for people to bring forward any concerns. Doing this will make sure that everyone in your team feels satisfied and welcomed. It is also important to respect different cultures and traditions, including the way that people dress and present themselves. 

Encourage knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing is key when it comes to harnessing the skills and knowledge of a diverse team. You might want to encourage a mentoring scheme that allows this. Focusing on pairing together people with different backgrounds – for example young with old, or men with women.

Chew on this:

How would you unlock the potential of a diverse team?