LEADERSHIP: BUT, I LIKE PEOPLE LIKE ME

Published: 2007-04-10   please add a comment below

If you were putting together a football team, would you select only people, who play the same position? Probably not. But, that’s what we often do with business teams. No, let's not ask Jenny, she's rather different, and she's not an engineer; and, Fred, he’s only interested in sales. We don’t want anyone who rocks the boat – in other words, with different or confronting views.

But diversity pays dividends. As a leader, you need people with all the relevant skills and knowledge. So, sales can be just as important as engineering - particularly if you want to sell this new product. And, often there's benefit in seeking someone, like Jenny, with a totally different background, training or style. They are less likely to be bound by industry orthodoxy or group think. The jargon for this is synergy: their input makes the team worth more than the sum of its parts.

However, diversity of skills and backgrounds has to be reinforced with tolerance for different views. Otherwise, it's tokenism: do join us, but please keep quiet!

Think about your own team. On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate both its diversity and its tolerance? Who could be added to increase synergy? And, what changes in team behaviour would be needed to make those with different views feel free to voice them? What's your responsibility in this?

As a leader, diversity can be challenging. Meetings may be more demanding. Do you feel comfortable handling dissent?

At times, as leader, you may in fact need to be the source of diversity. If discussion is stuck on one track, you may need to throw in new or challenging ideas yourself.

Try this one!

Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®