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If you work at a managerial level, possibilities are that you want to ensure a better atmosphere for every employee where they can shine and grow, no matter what their age, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation are. Employing and managing a diverse team is crucial if you want your business to provide equal chances to its workforce and provide the most outstanding service possible to consumers and clients.
However, only hiring frontline staff from many different backgrounds is not enough. Your company’s leadership team must be diverse to reap the greatest benefits for all stakeholders. Read on to see why diverse leadership matters for retention, cooperation and success.
1: Deeper and broader experience and perspective
Greater depth and breadth of experience and perspective directly affect diverse leadership, improving the ability to connect with current and potential workers, clients, and customers. Innovation is made possible by experience, perspective, and relatability, which are essential for gaining and retaining market share.
By talking, connecting and working with people who have other experiences and perspectives than you, you’ll soon discover new views on matters. Try for example to brainstorm with people from a different background or department. We bet you will get ideas you’ve never thought of yourself.
2: Attract and retain top talent
Putting together a diverse, high-performing team requires effort. When successful, this will result in a higher capability to attract and retain top talent, an improved company strategy, and other benefits.
Top performers and aspiring leaders want to recognise themselves at the top. It is beneficial for end users if someone at the table represents their point of view. There are a few things you can start today that will help you get that top-talent team. Start with the hiring process.
During interviews, let your applicant talk to a couple of your employees so they can see the diversity and culture of the company. Besides, to retain top talent it is important to take care of their unique needs and give them the opportunities to grow in their field of expertise. Let’s dive into why employee development deserves a rethink, and the four rules to live by when it comes to driving retention through development.
3: Create a sense of trust and psychological safety
Your team will be empowered and better enabled by diversity in leadership. This is crucial since society is diverse, and various communities must interact and collaborate with people who resemble them. This fosters a sense of psychological safety and trust.
This is easier said than done. If you want to create a sense of trust, you’ll constantly have to listen to your employees, act on your promises and be kind to them. This goes from admitting your mistakes to praising their development or performances.
4: Improve innovation
When members of a diverse leadership team can have open and candid conversations from various perspectives, organisations can foster creativity and win over customers who value inclusiveness. Building a healthy, diverse, and well-managed leadership team will result in more creativity, innovation, and unique ideas. A diverse mix of viewpoints brings better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.
How do you do this? Not only do you want to invest money in idea generation, but you also want to get a diverse group of people around the table for that. By putting a diverse group of people together you’ll generate unique and new ideas that will give your company a competitive advantage to win the market in both the short and long run.
5: More diverse teams are more fun!
It can get dull after a time to have leaders and coworkers with the same personality, background and behavioural traits. Diversity sparks more engagement and energy. Different types of people bring in different vibes to the team. Additionally, there is a bigger ability to learn from people that are different from you. It’s a win-win situation that increases learning, fun, and enthusiasm!
Start delivering impact through diversity
The truth is that the case for greater diversity in leadership is stronger than ever. Attracting and developing diverse leaders across your organisation takes time and resources to be successful. What’s most important is developing effective processes and systems now, which will help mould your organisation’s future.
Is your company ready for diverse leadership? Build your own leadership strategy for the organisation of tomorrow. To implement your diversity practices, dive deeper in our People Strategy Guide. In this guide, we offer you a roadmap to plan and execute your next great people strategy.
Download this free whitepaper by Personio now!
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