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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT


Leading a Team with Diverse


Backgrounds by Debbie Reslock


A


s we connect across multicultural lines and borderless economies, the world is getting smaller, yet


organizations often struggle to create an inclusive work space. But there’s much to be gained for those that do. Beyond contrib- uting to personal growth, a diverse team can increase the bottom line while establishing a company’s competitive advantage with innovative ideas. Businesses who prioritize the importance


of diversity and inclusion may have once been harder to find but today there’s a list. And it’s growing. Ranking high are organi- zations like Accenture, a digital, technology, and consulting service provider that places responsibility on everyone in the company to create and sustain an inclusive environment. Committed to both transparency and im-


provement, Accenture’s 2017 U.S. workforce added 1,800+ employees of diverse back- grounds, up from 1,000 in 2016. They’re working toward a 40 percent goal of women employees by 2020. Approximately 2,300 in the company self-identify as persons with disabilities and according to the research they cite, businesses who employ and support these employees outperform their peers. Another organization that’s excelling is


consulting services firm, Deloitte. After re- viewing several research studies on diversity and inclusion, they found effective leader- ship can greatly increase the proportion of employees who feel highly included from those who don’t.


Leadership and opportunities with a multicultural team Compiling characteristics of highly inclu- sive leaders, Deloitte found the following six traits contributed to successfully operating in diverse markets:


50 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MARCH/APRIL 2019


1. Commitment to diversity and inclusion; objectives that align with their personal values.


2. Courage to challenge the status quo while being humble about their strengths and weaknesses.


3. Cognizant of personal and organization- al blind spots and put policies in place to mitigate unconscious bias.


4. Curious to learn how others experience the world and able to tolerate ambiguity, purposely asking opinions of those likely to have different points of view.


5. Culturally effective in cross-cultural in- teractions, understanding similarities and differences but also how their own culture impacts their worldview.


6. Collaborative and leverage the thinking of diverse groups. They lead from the middle of the circle instead of from the top of the pyramid.


Productive team leadership isn’t an easy skill but guiding a multicultural team also brings the challenges of pre-existing stig- mas and intergroup prejudice; different expectations for respecting hierarchy; lack- ing the common ground of language and culture; and differing interpretations about the commitment or agreement reached, according to Professor Kristin Behfar at the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation. After worldwide interviews with those experienced in multicultural leadership, Behfar and her co-authors put together recommendations on leading a diverse team. A few of their suggestions included: • Be aware if your own behavior is up- holding a cultural stereotype.


• Make sure both sides fully understand each other and that asking someone to repeat themselves is not considered offensive.


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