As an effective diversity manager, at a behavioral level, you must be able to interact with others who are different from yourself. This requires that you
Understand your values, motives, and personal beliefs and their effect on what you do behaviorally.
Conduct your own personal development work to take inventory of your strengths, weaknesses, and level of sensitivity and to understand the impact you have on others through your actions.
Maintain a level of accountability to develop the skills necessary to adjust your behavior while still maintaining your own identity, values, and beliefs.
Knowing who you are and how your actions impact others clarifies your choices to select the most appropriate behavior.
A very skillful, diversity sensitive manager can effectively manage situations and successfully interact with people who may be different from themselves. When operating at this level, you are able to modify your behavior to meet the needs of the situation. Being effective in diverse workforce situations by using interpersonal skills reflects an ability to be flexible in reacting to the ideas and opinions of others. It demonstrates respect and trust through cooperation, attentiveness, and friendliness. This helps create an inclusive, high-performing workplace that can make a significant difference in organizational performance.
A beginning list of “Skills for Managing Diverse People” was published in the Cultural Diversity at Work newsletter published by The GilDeane Group in Seattle, Washington.
The list was developed collaboratively with managers, readers, workshop participants, and the editors of the publication. This list can be used to help you answer the question, “What am I supposed to do differently?” and you will see areas in which you might need to add skills to your repertoire. It identifies the skills grouped into seven categories. These skills apply to a wide range of management functions, including coaching, counseling, facilitating, interviewing, and conducting performance reviews. The following interpersonal skills are important in managing a diverse workforce:
Modify your listening skills:
Recognize and adapt to the variety of listening behaviors you will encounter among diverse people.
Listen for value-based cultural assumptions and expectations.
Observe behavior and monitor your interpretations and meanings.
Ask necessary and appropriate questions:
Learn about other views, work styles, assumptions, and needs. Encourage others to do the same.
Be comfortable in asking questions about the proper or preferred terminology, pronunciations, etc.
Be comfortable in asking if you have caused offense, and find out how to correct and avoid it.
Ask people to explain such things as goals, objectives, instructions, and directions in order to ensure common understanding.
Shift frame of reference when necessary:
Demonstrate an understanding that perceptions are relative, and help others understand this.
Demonstrate empathy and understanding for other values, attitudes, and beliefs; distinguish empathy from acceptance.
Be flexible in your approach to situations; there are many ways of doing things.
Manage conflict constructively:
Define the issue(s) in the conflict and focus on interests, not positions.
Make an effort to understand other’s perspectives.
Demonstrate an understanding of different cultural assumptions about what conflict is and alternative ways of dealing with it.
Develop a collaborative (“win-win”) problem-solving process.
Recognize stereotypes and generalizations:
Be aware of and monitor your own stereotypes.
Hold others accountable for their stereotypes.
Learn to distinguish between individual differences and cultural differences.
Show respect and interest in the other person:
Become acquainted with the geography, language, history, politics, and customs of the native countries and cultures of those around you.
Be aware that humor is perceived and handled in different ways by different cultural groups; inappropriate humor may be perceived as insulting.
When talking with non-fluent English speakers, speak clearly and avoid jargon and slang. Ensure that the person understands your meaning.
Be approachable:
Let others know, verbally and non-verbally, that you are willing to interact with them.
Give cultural information freely when it is requested.
Be open and accommodating to others’ needs for gaining information; do not assume they know what you know.
Learn to feel and exhibit comfort with groups and individuals different from yourself.
Developing skills to effectively manage a diverse workforce is no longer optional. In fact, these skills were required some time ago as our workforce demographic makeup changed. To be effective, managers must move through the continuum of becoming self-aware, improving their knowledge and understanding of diversity and translating that awareness, knowledge, and understanding into a conscious decision to behave in a way that values the differences that employees bring to the workforce.
Setting the Tone for Valuing Diversity
Setting the tone for an environment that values diversity is a critical responsibility for any manager. Leading by example is the best method for letting employees know that you value diversity and encourage them to do so as well. Setting and living up to the behavioral standards for valuing diversity may not always be easy since our cultural programming can influence our basic response. However, if we let others know that we appreciate their differences and show that appreciation through our behavior and actions, workforce members begin to get the message that valuing diversity is truly a standard in which you believe and something they should do.
Even more importantly, as a manager, you must role model important decisions such as hiring, promotion, and allocating rewards in a way that is consistent with valuing diversity. Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas (2001) described this familiar situation in a Harvard Business Review article:
“When I asked a white male middle manager how promotions were handled in his company, he said, ‘You need leadership capability, bottom-line results, the ability to work with people, and compassion.’ Then he paused and smiled. ‘That’s what they say. But down the hall, there’s a guy we call Captain Kickass. He’s ruthless, mean-spirited, and he steps on people. That’s the behavior they really value. Forget what they say.’”
If behavior that is the direct opposite of valuing diversity is allowed to go uncorrected or addressed, employees get the message pretty clearly that this diversity and valuing differences stuff is nothing but “lip service.” Managers must assess their behavior often, ask for feedback, hold themselves accountable, and “walk the talk” if real change is to occur.
Some managers try to walk the talk by adhering to the Golden Rule, that is, “treating others as you would like to be treated.” It sounds good in theory; however, this approach can unintentionally project your own cultural programming related to perceptions, values, and beliefs of what is right and wrong, good and bad, and appropriate and inappropriate onto others whose needs, values, and beliefs are dramatically different. For example, in some cultures it is considered impolite or down right rude to bring attention to yourself in a group meeting. Yet some managers might not know that by recognizing a work-team member in front of others could be embarrassing to them and to members of their culture who might be in attendance. The assumption that people want to be treated the way you would want to be treated leads to “one-size-fits-all thinking.” It assumes that if you like it, others will like it too. Instead, it might be more effective to practice the Platinum Rule, that is, “treat others as they want to be treated.” This approach values what is needed from the other person’s perspectives, values, and beliefs.
To find out what others want, you can ask questions of them directly, such as:
1. What do you want most from your job?
2. Under what conditions do you do your best work?
3. How would you like me to show recognition for your hard work?
4. How would you like to receive suggestions for improving your work?
5. What are your short- and long-term career goals?
6. In what ways do you think people in our department, including yourself, are different from one another?
7. How do these differences affect our working together as a team?
8. How can and do these differences affect our overall productivity?
9. What policies and procedures inhibit you from doing your absolute best work?
10. What things am I doing that help and hinder our work together as a team?
11. What biases do you perceive I reflect?
12. What suggestions do you have for me as a manager or team leader?
These are just a few questions to get you and your diverse work team on an inclusive path for performance.
From a behavioral standpoint, managers must also project a positive self-fulfilling prophecy with others that reflects trust, confidence, and appreciation for the value they bring to the workplace. The implications of the self-fulfilling prophecy in the workplace are dramatic. Because of the stereotypical cultural programming we have all been raised with, we may unknowingly project self-fulfilling prophecies onto others that actually wind up occurring in the workplace.
For example, it might be assumed that traditional employees are competent and more effective workers and that employees from other groups might be less competent until proven otherwise. The manager’s role is critical in this dynamic process because he or she has the authority to give or withhold rewards. If we assume that a person will fail, they often do—largely as a result of the negative climate, lower expectations, and impact on the individual’s motivation level. When we truly believe that an employee is capable and our behavior is congruent with that assumption, employees often become motivated to show us that we are not wrong. As an effective manager of diversity, it is better to assume that people are competent and will succeed, until they prove otherwise. The self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly important with non-traditional employees, because the traditional work environment has automatically assumed that individuals from these groups are less competent, thus putting them at an immediate disadvantage.