Picture perfect
Imagine walking into your office, where the atmosphere is buzzing with positivity and excitement. You have hired a diverse team that enjoys working together, sharing ideas, and achieving success. You have cultivated an inclusive environment with diversity and inclusion activities, workshops, updated work-life balance programs, celebrations, and more. It doesn’t feel like work to you or your team; it’s a great place to grow. Whether you are coaching in person, online, or conducting walk-and-talk meetings, it’s all positive and productive. You are the perfect creator, knowing what your team needs to prosper.
Your responsibility
To build better diverse leadership, as a leader, you hold the key to the success of cultivating an inclusive workplace in your organization. Immerse yourself in a solid understanding of diverse and inclusive backgrounds through continuous training and staying informed to build an inclusive workplace culture. In addition, as a leader, you need to go above and beyond in this spectrum with daily monitoring, inspecting, coaching, educating, and leading in shaping your organizational structure for success. Building a rich culture and leading your team to a better inclusive environment is not just a monthly meeting or to-do list task, it’s about becoming a leader that everyone will follow through strategic thinking and innovation. By thinking out of the box and incorporating team-building exercises, activities, and accountability checklists, you can promote collaboration continuously.
Why is it important today?
The post-pandemic era has seen young leaders and seasoned professionals who stayed silent for wanting more, and have eyes on the company or employer that cultivates a culture of autonomy, empathy, compassion, and better work-life balance. Employees are not standing on the sidelines but are quick to contact their recruiter to move on to another employer where they have the freedom to express themselves and incorporate their diverse talents. Furthermore, the world has shrunk to a screen (iPhone, Android, tablet, etc.) and information is readily available with tremendous resources for success.
As an immigrant to the USA at the age of sixteen, twenty-five years of leadership learning, and an internationally best-selling author of “Becoming a Legacy Leader” on Diversity and Inclusion, I have witnessed transformative leadership changes and worked hard to make this change come to fruition. I rolled up my sleeves and started with the following three foundational strategies. Let’s explore them and put them in practice. Your business might just explode!
Understanding people’s perspectives to build trust
To become great in building your diverse culture, striving to understand everyone’s perspectives is key to building trust and it’s a holistic and inclusive approach. Embrace perspectives from every level, from the lowest position to the highest, knowing that everyone has thoughts to contribute. Additionally, understanding is the ability to listen, a skill you need to master as a leader. I had an opportunity to develop this skill when I was paired up with a mentor who was an expert in listening skills. I learned this skill for a year through exercises, role-plays, and observations from my leader. Now, I avoid multitasking and, instead, I concentrate on what is in front of me, listening to others’ perspectives. Find a mentor and master this skill. Listen to your team and build trust.
Promote open communication to encourage diverse voices
Lead with humility and transparency in communication and listen with empathy and compassion to build a better inclusive culture in your office. Start with yourself and how you communicate when it comes to encouraging feedback, reducing misunderstanding, and enhancing problem-solving. In addition, how do you show up every day with your nonverbal communication, your appearance, your facial expression, and your smiling, letting everyone know that you are open to hearing their thoughts? As a leader, you must wear your non-negotiable attire every day: your smile. Promote open communication and allow your team to be heard in morning meetings, one-on-one conversations, on-the-spot feedback, and monthly meetings. By promoting open dialogue, you will nurture a cohesive and inclusive environment where everyone is respected and heard.
Learning about your team’s strengths
As leaders, our job is to get to know your team beyond delegating daily tasks and monitoring production. To have an inclusive diverse culture, strive to get a deeper understanding of your team’s strengths, backgrounds, and diverse perspectives to help you create a collaborative atmosphere of learning, innovation, and overall success of the company mission and values.
As a leader, you can increase your understanding of your team by:
1. Providing continued education, learning about your team’s different countries and their cultural differences as part of your program, once per month. Tip: Watching foreign movies with subtitles will enhance your understanding of their cultural beliefs and customs.
2. Arranging lunch and learn meetings at diverse restaurants once per quarter, as food is a big part of a culture.
3. Organizing group trips to different museums, national parks, or countries with tour guides on an annual basis.
4. Hosting international-themed parties featuring cuisine and cultural elements from various countries on an annual basis.
5. Understanding cultural differences amongst your team through monthly meetings or one-on-one discussions.
6. Mentoring and shadowing programs. Pair up mentors in a place for job shadowing opportunities to help them learn and grow on a bi-weekly basis.
Continue growing and deepen your diversity & inclusion environment
A great tool that you can implement is a checklist. As a leader, you can reinforce the checklist and keep yourself accountable for fostering growth in empathy and compassion and for a more inclusive and diverse environment. Below are sample questions to begin with:
1. Share an example of a recent instance where you demonstrated open communication among the team to deepen an inclusive environment.
2. How do you understand others’ perspectives and educate and grow diversity and inclusion in your office?
3. What strategies have you implemented this month to collaborate with diverse perspectives?
4. What fun events, outings, or workshops have you organized within your office to promote diversity and inclusion?
By practicing these strategies, today’s leaders can have a profound impact in building a diverse and inclusive workplace. Furthermore, your organization will thrive in today’s work landscape where everyone’s voice will be heard and included. It is a very important area of our business strategy that must be executed and strategized with precision. With proper ongoing planning and activities with your team, you will harvest your diverse team and your business will achieve success and reach its full potential.
In addition, leading with humility, empathy, and perspective will help you build and carry a motivated team that will trust you to talk to you about any situation or problem. Encourage and value diverse perspectives when making decisions and demonstrate this commitment to your company mission by always leading with diversity and inclusion.