Learning to manage diversity

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In a globalized world where borders disappear at the click of a mouse, it has become vital for companies to open up to diversity in order to conquer new markets.

Diversity and management

It is a necessary upheaval that affects the world of business, accompanying, de facto, the evolution of society. A mandatory change to get on the diversity train, which is not only an essential element for the success of the company but also a great asset for enriching and developing collective intelligence and creativity.

To create a decisive advantage over the competition, managers must be able to work with employees of varied profiles and backgrounds, while maintaining a high level of standards. Integrating everyone according to their skills and potential within a cohesive collective, being a reflection of what society is today are the real challenges that will determine the adaptability and agility of the company.

Synergy and integration

Succeeding in managing diversity requires, first of all, creating synergy within your teams. Obviously, by ensuring that future collaborators share, in general terms, the values of the company. Second, that their behaviors and attitudes allow them to easily integrate into your organization.

To achieve this, do not hesitate to expand the circle of those you usually consult to give their opinion on recruitment: this will allow you to broaden the field of possibilities and to not only recruit people who look like you: diversity is wealth.

Then all that remains is to “imbue” your new collaborators with company culture so that they can grasp the codes, the rules of the game and understand in which universe they will now evolve. It is also about understanding the codes of their previous professional experiences and those that influence them. The aim: federate, coordinate, motivate.

Prejudices and stereotypes

Whether conscious or not, prejudices accompany us on a daily basis. Getting out of it is a difficult but achievable exercise. The surprise notes of new collaborators (generally, you can ask them for a surprise note at the end of the first month and before the third month) often reveal what may surprise, what is appreciated or not appreciated, what may be shocking. These notes of surprise are very good tools for getting up to date on how the company operates, its weaknesses, its strengths, which are often forgotten when daily life and the workload no longer leave us time to take an objective perspective.

To work well together, a diverse team is above all a fluid team. It must be aware that its differences are a strong competitive advantage. The manager therefore has a crucial role in facilitating: refusing stereotyped behaviors, using collaborative processes to bring out everyone's ideas, highlighting common and unifying points, all elements for value the feeling of belonging.