A huge part of successful diversity management is being able to unite a culturally rich team, with all of their different ideas, identities and processes. As a global leader, this will really test your management skill as you seek to unite all of your employees under one banner.
Whilst it all sounds very romantic, the reality can be quite different as you get to grips with managing a team that can be divided not only by culture but by proximity, time zones and other similar challenges.
So how do you go about choosing a common goal that will unite a diverse team? What steps can you take to be able to pull people together?
The process is essentially two-fold.
View Diversity As An Advantage, Not a Burden
“Diversity is the magic. It is the first manifestation, the first beginning of the differentiation of a thing and of simple identity. The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection.”
Thomas Berry
Have you ever heard the phrase “Too many cooks spoil the broth”?
What image does the idea of having multiple streams of input bring to your mind? If it’s a negative image you see then it’s likely to be more difficult for you to see unity in a team where your employees have so many diverse viewpoints to offer. Hoping to spare yourself the perceived aggravation, you may fall into the trap of shying away from an approach that seeks to actively facilitate people’s unique cultural qualities coming to the fore.
But re-read the above quote — diversity is the ‘secret sauce’ that gives you a competitive advantage. No other company has the same mix of people that you do. You’re drawing from a pool of talent that nobody else has. So, assuming you’ve invested a huge amount of time, energy and money in talent acquisition, don’t be afraid to utilise it; many hands make light work.
So Get Your Mind Right.
Global leaders need to thrive in as many aspects of diversity management as possible and the way to do this is to think about it positively in the first place. You can either think that your project will drown under the weight of lots of different opinions or you can focus your mind on the richness at your disposal. Opinions become unproductive when the common goal does not have the depth or the strength to keep your team focused on achieving it.
Which leads very nicely onto the second part.
Choose Your ‘Why’ and then Choose the Goal
“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”
Simon Sinek has spoken at length about the power of ‘Why’. The basic principle is that nobody is really interested in what you’re doing. They’re interested in why you’re doing it. In order to unite your team and inspire them to action, the reason for them doing what they do needs to be powerful enough to keep them focused on finding the best solution to achieve the goal. When the reason for doing provides enough of a pull, the idea that too many opinions will cause problems becomes a distant memory.
If you need the ultimate example, look to football and the excitement that captivates the whole world as each nation puts forward their team to represent them in the World Cup. The game can be played regardless of any barriers presented. Language ceases to matter. Creed ceases to matter. Race ceases to matter. Yet, opinions abound. What’s the best strategy? How should the players assemble themselves? Is a defence focused strategy better or worse?
Instead of all these questions and opinions being destructive, they become constructive. All discussions are now targeted to achieving the following; the pride of a nation, the building of a legacy and the achievement of sporting glory that gets discussed for generations.
These reasons go beyond the individualistic characteristics of a particular culture and that’s what makes them so powerful. Diversity management is all about getting people to unite behind a common purpose, and focus less on the things that divide them.
Achieving Cultural Transcendence
See the table below. Included are some examples of what it looks like to pick a culturally transcendent theme, and then translate that into business objectives. The theme is the ‘why’ and the business objective is the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ is where your culturally diverse team come in to steal the show.
So when you are choosing a company goal, have it fall in line with some of these major categories that 99% of people will have respect for. By doing this you’ll be able to get the team to graciously accept cultural differences and different ways of doing things as expressions of human creativity. Each way has its own value and a healthy discussion ensues as your team figures out the best way forward.
As a side note for all global leaders out there….
Allow room for different methods that pursue the common goal
The CIPD describe international diversity management the following way:
“Diversity management promotes valuing employees as individuals and using their unique strengths and capabilities to support business performance.”
Every employee’s mind works slightly differently. So you can imagine that even when people share cultures, the conclusions they draw and the way they choose to solve the same problem will differ. Now magnify that idea across a team which is culturally diverse. For any goal you present as a global leader, your team could hold an infinite number of ways to achieve it.
A recent study has shown that diverse teams make better decisions. The study related to gender diversity but invariably those teams would have contained different cultures within them.
So don’t squash the different creative expressions that come from your global team. You’ve got an excellent chance that the most streamlined, most efficient way of achieving the company goal will rise to the surface.
As a leader, your job is to focus on the goal and trust your team to deliver the high quality work that will achieve it. If you get down in the nitty-gritty trying to micromanage your way into reaching the goal, you’ll burn out and the different inputs will become a burden to you.
So have a balance, oversee what’s happening, have regular checkpoints to discuss progress, but empower your team to mastermind the solutions that will move the company forward. In this way, diversity becomes a resource to be harnessed and not a factor that needs to be suppressed and managed.
So in summary, choosing a common goal that will unite your team boils down to two things:
- getting your mind in a headspace to accommodate different points of view, and
- having a purpose to underpin the goal that unifies your team.
Remember that you can only go as far as your mind is willing to go. If your outlook on collaboration needs a tweak, get some inspiration from companies who have seen massive returns from following this method. Secondly, figure out your reason, your purpose, your ‘why’. It will be the anchor that keeps your culturally diverse team centred and focused on using their differences to create something amazing for the company.
“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”
Audre Lorde
We hope this article was able to give you new ideas on how to unite your culturally diverse team. As a global leader, it’s up to you to lead the way towards a common goal — while letting every member on your team add their own unique value to the journey.
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