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The Final Word by Helen Roush
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Managing Diversity

Diversity brings varying perspectives, experience, and expertise which can be highly beneficial for a company as it encourages innovation.

However, having a diverse team takes finesse to manage as different ideologies can create conflict among co-workers.

Good managers should work to minimize any potential obstacles and harness the benefits that come with a diverse workforce.

You should get to know each member of your staff. This takes work, but you should work to identify potential issues and then work on resolution.

A good manager should never make stereotypical presumptions about individuals and each member of your staff should be treated with respect.

Furthermore, your company should invest in diversity training for each team member and manager. This professional learning will help to learn to properly handle any challenges.

You should find out how people work best in teams. One thing our company did was have team members take what is called a Predictive Index test. These tests are affordable. The Predictive Index helps to maximize productively by understanding how your team members work and think.

You should make communication clear. Talk to your team members regularly. Make sure that they understand goals and objectives and their roles. One way of doing this is have them repeat to you what they think the objectives, goals and their roles are. This helps to clear up confusion.

You should have an open door policy and accept feedback from your team members. Team members should have the opportunity to vocalize and share ideas. This helps promote a healthy environment.

Having a diverse workforce will create innovation, grow your talent pool, improve employee performance, improve employee engagement and improve company reputation. This will lead to an increase in the bottom line.

Helen Roush is Executive Vice President of Paperitalo Publications.

 

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