Janice has recently been hired as manager of an engineering department at TopCo. The company has long been committed to cultivating a diverse workforce, and Janice's new team reflects that diversity. Her on-site staff comprises men and women of various races and ethnicities. Janice's team also consists of a few engineers who work at satellite offices in other countries where TopCo is seeking to expand its markets.
Janice knows that part of her job is to ensure that TopCo benefits as much as possible from her team's diversity. And that means managing her employees' differences skillfully. She wonders how she might best approach the task as she eases into her new role.
To leverage her team's diversity, Janice must cultivate an inclusive environment—one that makes all employees feel welcome and encourages them to achieve maximum performance and productivity. Tools such as mentoring and incentives will help her foster this environment and retain her team's talent. She should also know how to resolve any diversity-related conflicts that may arise in her group, and be willing to identify and challenge any inaccurate assumptions she may hold about ethnic and other differences.
She and her team will need to explore ways to avoid common cross-cultural communication gaffes. Moreover, given TopCo's multinational goals, Janice must consider how her employees can use their familiarity with different cultures to serve new customers.
A diverse workforce provides many advantages to a company. How can you foster diversity and maximize the benefits?
Topic Objectives
This topic helps you:
• Understand the unique value and challenges that come with a diverse workforce
• Manage diversity-related conflicts in your team
• Foster an inclusive work environment
• Leverage the advantages that diversity offers
• Recruit and retain diverse talent
• Communicate effectively with employees, partners, and customers from other cultures Diversity
What is a diverse workforce?
As a manager, you've probably heard about "diversity initiatives" in your organization. But what is diversity? And why is it important?
Diversity is another word for differences between people. In an organizational setting, a diverse workforce comprises employees of various:
• Races
• Genders
• Ethnic backgrounds
• Ages
• Physical and cognitive abilities
• Sexual orientations
• Religious beliefs
• Learning and work styles
• Body types
• Work/life commitments
Leadership Insight: The mix of experience
When I think of diversity, I think in many buckets of diversity. I am a woman, for example, and I recognize that gender sometimes is looked at as a component of diversity. I am a Hispanic woman or a Hispanic person, and I realize that that is also recognized as a component of diversity.
But when I look at diversity, more than a country or a gender, there are other buckets.
Diversity comes from: What have been your previous experiences? What type of industries have you worked at before? What type of different bosses you have had over time? What types of different people you have managed over time?
And when you put all of those components in a bucket, that’s called diversity. When I hire people or when I try to build a new team or try to reshape an existing team, I look for diversity in all of those buckets: diversity in countries, diversities in gender, diversities in industry experiences.
And when I put a team together, I recognize that building a team with all sorts of different buckets of experience actually helps my team to become more successful eventually.
When building a diverse team, consider differences in many categories, including industry and professional experience.
Key Idea: Why a diverse workforce?
Why build a diverse workforce? Many organizations encourage diversity because providing equal opportunity to everyone is the right thing to do. And in some countries, hiring and retaining a diverse workforce is also a matter of obeying antidiscrimination laws.
But companies have discovered that a diverse workforce also gives them important competitive advantages in the areas of talent recruitment and retention, employee commitment and productivity, and profitable innovation.
When an organization builds a reputation for valuing differences, it often is better able to attract and keep talented employees. These individuals know that the company will appreciate and utilize the skills, backgrounds, and knowledge they bring to the table.
When employees use their differences to identify business opportunities and generate new ideas, they more fully express themselves at work. This leads to greater commitment and higher productivity.
Diverse workforces are rich seedbeds for new business ideas.
For example, at one company, a disabilities task force thought of ways to make the firm's products accessible to people with physical limitations. As a result, the company won numerous contracts from government agencies that had a mandate to make accessibility of products a criterion in vendor selection.
How can your organization benefit from hiring and retaining a diverse workforce?

Why now?
The competitive edge that a diverse workforce provides has become more essential than ever— owing to these key shifts in the business landscape:
• Globalization: Many companies now operate in numerous regions and countries. To attract and motivate different employees from around the globe, as well as win and keep customers in a multitude of environments, managers must understand and demonstrate respect for cultural differences.
For instance, when a major American company set up a division in Spain, it initially provoked conflict with Spanish labor unions by expecting its Spanish employees to conform to American work schedules. Only after hiring Spanish managers for its new operation did the company regain workers' trust. With their greater understanding of Spanish culture, the new managers were more successful in negotiating mutually agreeable schedules with the employees.
• Changing labor pool: Populations in many countries have grown more diverse, and labor pools reflect that diversity.
For example, in the United States, Hispanics and Asians are the fastest-growing
populations. And in France and Great Britain, Arab populations are rising.
Organizations hoping to acquire the human resources they need to function must hire and motivate a wider variety of employees than before.
• Intensifying competition: With change accelerating throughout the business world, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to stay ahead of the pack. By enabling employees to bring all of their unique qualities to work—including their differences— organizations stand a greater chance of maintaining an edge over rivals.
To illustrate, in one consumer-products firm, a group of Mexican employees used their understanding of Hispanic culture and tastes to propose a new snack food that appealed to a previously untapped Hispanic market—and became a $100 million product.
Diversity presents unique challenges
Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.
–Malcolm Forbes
Though diversity offers major advantages, it can also present challenges. In particular, as people with very different beliefs, values, and priorities interact in the workplace, conflicts can arise.
Consider this example of how differences in work and nonwork commitments can create tension: Paolo and Tamara are senior accountants who report to Stavros. Paolo recently negotiated an arrangement with Stavros to leave the office early on Fridays so he could spend more time with his children. Tamara, a dedicated churchgoer, asks Stavros if she, too, can leave early once a week to attend a bible study class that's offered only on Friday afternoons. When Stavros says, "Sorry, no," Tamara concludes that he views her priorities
as less important than Paolo's. Her resentment grows, and she begins to see company policies as unfair. Losing trust in Stavros and the company, she becomes reluctant to give her best on the job.
Some diversity-related conflicts arise from people's fear of being seen as prejudiced.
For instance, a 25-year-old manager avoids giving needed constructive feedback to her 50-year-old subordinate, fearing accusations of age discrimination. The employee thus never receives the information he needs to improve his performance on the job. In these kinds of situations, it's important for managers to determine whether they're dealing with a performance problem or a diversity-related problem.
When these sorts of diversity-related tensions and fears escalate, productivity and morale can suffer—and organizations miss out on the advantages that diversity provides.
Managers can surmount such challenges, if they:
• Correct their misperceptions about difference
• Deal effectively with diversity-related conflicts
• Foster a workplace that embraces differences as much as similarities
• Tap diversity's value
• Recruit and retain a diverse workforce
• Improve their ability to communicate with peers, employees, customers, and vendors from different cultures
Note: This online program is not intended as legal advice. If you encounter a diversity-related conflict that escalates in your team or department, consult your human resources group and/or legal counsel. They will be able to advise you on the specifics of your situation.
Replace misperceptions with facts
A diverse workforce gives any company important competitive advantages.
For example, it enables the organization to attract and retain a variety of talented employees who generate creative ideas for new products and services.
However, misperceptions about diversity can prevent companies from gaining these advantages by planting the seeds for conflict in the workplace. Consider the following misperceptions, their consequences, and ideas for thinking differently about differences.
Misperception #1: "Members of a particular group are all alike."
Human beings tend to lump others under a label and assume that all members of a particular group or culture share the same characteristics. Such beliefs are stereotypes—conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conceptions, opinions, or images of particular groups. Examples may include:
• "Asians are smart and hardworking."
• "Californians are laid-back when it comes to business."
• "Men love sports."
• "Germans are efficient."
• "Americans are pushy negotiators."
When stereotypes are negative, they constitute prejudice—defined as an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. Assuming that all members of a particular group are the same can have damaging consequences in the workplace.
Example: Susanna, a manager at Marlon Media, believes that all men love sports. When the firm acquires an account with a leading golf-club manufacturer, Susanna immediately pulls Gerry, one of her most talented employees, off the health and beauty account he's been managing because she assumes he'd rather work with sporting equipment.
However, Gerry has little interest in golf and would have preferred to continue promoting hair-care products. After one month in his new role, Gerry accepts a job offer from a competing organization.
Fact: Members of a particular group do not all necessarily share the same characteristics. To get the most from subordinates, managers must assess each employee's unique characteristics and strengths.
To think differently about differences: Identify the prejudices you hold about people different from you. Be honest with yourself, and challenge your beliefs. For example, recall individuals you know who do not fit the stereotypes of their ethnic group, age, gender, or some other defining characteristic. Consider ways in which you don't fit stereotypes applied to your group.
Misperception #2: "We each have one identity."
Many people engage in either/or thinking about diversity.
For example, perhaps you believe that people are either black or white, female or male, young or old, rich or poor, conservative or liberal, and so forth.
Either/or thinking causes people to define themselves in opposition to others—which can spawn conflict in the workplace.
Example: When Emilio, a high-achieving salesperson who emigrated from Mexico fifteen years ago, is passed over for a promotion by Tom, his American boss, he wonders if discrimination was involved. He becomes critical around Tom, and their working relationship sours.
Fact: Every person has multiple identities. For instance, Tom is not just an American. He may also identify himself as a middle-aged man, a father, and an activist for liberal causes. He and Emilio may hold some of these identities in common. Perhaps, for instance, Emilio is also in his middle years, has children, and holds liberal views.
By becoming aware of their shared identities, Emilio and Tom may feel less in opposition to each other — and therefore may forge a more positive, productive working relationship.
To think differently about differences: Try this exercise: List your multiple identities, considering your home and personal life, as well as civic, professional, and other priorities. For example, "I'm a leader at my church, a marketing expert, and an animal rights activist."
Now look for identities you share with other individuals at work. Likewise, encourage your subordinates to discover their similar identities and to learn about one another's differences and similarities.
Misperception #3: "People's identities don't change."
When managers assume that people's identities don't change, they may neglect to offer their subordinates valuable developmental opportunities.
Example: Tanya has long managed the benefits group in the human resources
department of Harrington Associates, a firm based in London. Her subordinates include Barry, an Indian-born benefits specialist who has reported to Tanya for many years. A year ago, while lunching together in the cafeteria and conversing about identities, Barry said to Tanya, "I see myself as a Hindu first, an HR professional second, and an Indian third."
When the company decides to establish a satellite office in India, Tanya never considers whether Barry might be interested in taking an overseas assignment at the new office.
After all, he himself had placed his Indian background in last place in his list of identities during that earlier lunchtime conversation.
Tanya doesn't realize that, in the past year, Barry's interest in his Indian heritage and culture has intensified and that he would welcome an opportunity to take on an assignment in India. Moreover, his interest in and familiarity with Indian culture would enable him to make a valuable contribution at the new office. Barry and the company lose out.
Fact: People's identities evolve as individuals acquire new experiences.
To think differently about differences: Ask yourself how your identities might be changing as you acquire new personal and professional experiences. Similarly, be open to the possibility that individual employees may also see themselves in a different light as their life and work circumstances evolve. Avoid making assumptions about what each employee's priorities, interests, and goals might be based on what you currently know about their identities. Take time during informal one-on-one conversations and performance reviews to find out how each employee's view of him- or herself may be changing. Consider these changes' implications for their work performance and career aspirations.
Misperception #4: "Members of the majority are most likely to be
prejudiced."
Many people assume that prejudice flows in one direction: from members of the numerical majority toward those in the minority or in positions of less power. However, prejudice can come from anyone and be directed toward anyone.
Example: Herman, a 60-year-old manager at Poulin Enterprises, sometimes makes jokes about women during casual chats with colleagues at lunch. 
Martha, a 31-year-old employee in the same department, has overheard a few of these jokes and finds them highly offensive.
One day, Martha and Bette, a colleague, hear Herman telling another male manager that he's getting divorced. "Boy," Herman says, "all women are the same. They take everything we've got when they leave us, don't they?" Martha and Bette look at each other and roll their eyes. "The stupid old fool," Martha snaps, "it's about time his wife left him!" "I can't believe you have to work with him on that task force," Bette says. "Well, he's ancient, and a typical male," Martha replies, "I don't take anything he says seriously."
Fact: Prejudice doesn't only flow from members of the numerical majority toward those in the minority or in less powerful positions.
To think differently about differences: If you're a member of a numerical minority, watch for any tendencies within yourself to judge or look down on someone else based on their age, gender, race, or some other defining characteristic.
Being aware of and correcting your misperceptions about differences are important first steps to building an inclusive workplace. But it's not enough. In addition, you need to handle diversityrelated conflicts effectively.
The price of mishandling conflict
Diverse teams make better decisions than homogeneous ones, are more creative, and handle complex challenges more effectively. Yet when organizations manage diversity-related conflicts poorly, talented performers flee in search of more welcoming environments. The result? The companies they've left fail to reap the benefits promised by diversity.
One way to deal more productively with diversity-related tensions is to understand what it feels like to be "different"—to be a member of the numerical minority or in a position of relatively little power.
What it feels like to be "different"
Difference is the essence of humanity.
–John Hume
In many companies, members of the numerical majority (for example, white managers in an organization that employs few blacks) hold prejudicial, deep-seated assumptions about members of the minority group. These assumptions create a demoralizing climate of tension and distrust for minority members—of which majority members remain unaware.
• "I feel like a token." Some black managers suspect that whites can't see past blacks' skin color.
For instance, at a management retreat, a newly hired African American VP of
strategic planning meets key decision makers. They express no interest in her
business expertise. Instead, they ask her to head up the company's new diversity committee.
• "I feel marginalized." Racial minorities and women often feel relegated to the sidelines during important business discussions.
For instance, during a strategy meeting, Manuela, a department head, offers a
suggestion for implementing a new competitive strategy. The room is quiet until a white male manager echoes Manuela's idea. The CEO then expresses interest in the idea. Concluding that others aren't willing to hear her thoughts, Manuela declines to contribute during future meetings.
• "I feel I have to work harder to demonstrate my worth." Managers who are members of the numerical majority can define expectations for others that feel demeaning or unreasonably stringent.
To illustrate, when the leader of a small team comprising employees with college degrees hires several qualified people who have only a high school education, her boss begins requesting progress reports from these new hires that he'd never required before.
The message? "I expect your team's performance to drop because of the new staff with less education." Though the newly configured team performs well, the director feels worn out by the pressure to constantly defend her employees' worth through meaningless reports. The following year, she accepts a position at a competing firm.
• "I don't fully trust you." Sometimes members of the numerical minority doubt that their majority-member colleagues will support them if they make a mistake. So they avoid taking risks.
A case in point: After several drinks at a business dinner, Carla complains to Anton, her new colleague, that "homosexuals are always advocating their agenda." Anton is gay but has not told Carla about his sexual orientation. He decides to keep his distance from Carla—which hampers collaboration between their two departments.

Resolve diversity-related conflicts
When a diversity-related conflict arises, the person in the numerical minority may feel an intense need to be proven "right" about having experienced prejudicial treatment based on his or her minority status. Meanwhile, the individual in the numerical majority can experience an equally intense need to be "innocent" of committing an offense.
With such polarized needs, the two stand little chance of moving beyond the conflict. The following steps can help you uncover what's fueling diversity-related tension and how you and the other person might interact more productively.
• Step 1: Reflect. If someone accuses you of prejudice, or you feel certain someone has shown prejudice toward you, pause to consider the facts of the situation and your goals before responding.
For example, when Sondra, a 24-year-old associate overheard two senior partners joking that "things ran so much more smoothly before so many demanding, attention-seeking kids joined our firm," she checked her anger. Then she thought about how the incident could help her achieve a goal that mattered more to her than being "right." Sondra's goal? Paving the way for a new generation of lawyers at the firm.
• Step 2: Connect. Ask questions to better understand the other person's behavior and attitudes. Then share your own perspective.
To illustrate, Sondra set out to understand what experiences lay under the partners' disparaging humor about the recent hires. She asked them, "What was it like for you when so many young people joined the firm? What did you feel you lost? Gained?" The men opened up, and Sondra explained the feelings she experienced when well-meaning colleagues made unflattering comments about recent entrants to the workforce. The mutual openness diffused tensions and enabled the colleagues to focus once more on meeting important strategic goals. And in future meetings, Sondra was able to convince the partners that being receptive to new voices would benefit the entire organization.
• Step 3: Question yourself. Ask yourself how your desire to be proven right about a perceived offense—or proven innocent of offending someone else—might have distorted your view of the situation.
For instance, Edy, a 39-year-old American manager, succeeded 59-year-old Brian as CEO at an international consultancy based in London. Brian, who remained as an adviser, told Edy that her push to market more vigorously to American women in their 30s was "unwise." Though she initially took offense, Edy asked Brian to elaborate. He expressed concern that Edy's strategy would narrow the firm's market and alienate the current customer base of older Western European men.
Edy realized she needed to explain how her strategy would support the firm's
mission. When she articulated her reasoning—and demonstrated her commitment to retaining current customers—Brian saw the value in her strategy. The tension between them eased, and Edy was able to move forward with implementing her new direction.
• Step 4: Shift your mind-set. Ask yourself what changes you could make to improve your workplace relationships.
For example, Richard, a French executive at a Paris-based consultancy, was
frustrated with Suha, his Egyptian business partner. Richard saw Suha as
controlling and critical when they took on major new consulting engagements.
Rather than trying to persuade Suha to alter his behavior, Richard realized that the only thing he could change was himself. He initiated a conversation with Suha to learn more about his concerns. When Richard discovered that Suha's behavior stemmed from his worry about the firm's increasing workload, he agreed to shoulder more of the load. Their working relationship moved from prickly to positive.

Leadership Insight: Recognize your biases
There’s a Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. When you walk into the museum, you gather in a small group, you wait for your guide. The guide says to you, “There are two doors through which you may enter the museum. One door, you can see, is market ‘Prejudiced,’ the other door, you can see, is marked ‘Not Prejudiced.’
Now, you choose the door that is most representative of you and how you feel about yourself. Are you prejudiced or are you not prejudiced?” So, of course we all stand there going, “Hmm, feels like a trick.” Right? 
One manager in the group — and he was a manager — stepped forward and tried to walk through the door marked “Not Prejudiced.” And you guess it — it was locked.
Now, there are irritated people standing there who have just been labeled “prejudiced,” even though they thought they weren’t. You go into the museum and you are educated then about what they mean by “prejudice.”
It’s about preferences, leanings. I call them leanings. It’s about things you’re not even aware of. So, what I encourage people to do all the time is to think about their leanings. Do you lean toward or away from someone with a particular accent? Like I love a French accent, but there may be another accent where I just kind of, “Oo, wow, that grates on my nerves somehow.”
Do you lean toward or away from somebody with different skin color, educational level? Think about your leanings. I know people, for example, who lean toward or away from extroverts versus introverts. Or flip it the other way around. They prefer the introvert.
And the goal here is not to label yourself or feel guilty about your leanings, but to recognize them. Because you see how it plays out in the workplace — we hire sometimes based on our leanings. We promote sometimes based on our leanings. We give developmental opportunities sometimes based on our leanings.
So, for us to be fair, to be viewed as fair by all of our employees, we really must take a look at our leanings — we take action in some cases — and make sure that in fact we are being fair in the workplace.
The first step to creating a diverse workplace is for people to reflect on their own preferences and prejudices.
Define "inclusiveness"
How might your organization reap the benefits promised by diverse workforces and teams— including increased access to new and existing markets, higher morale, and greater productivity?
One powerful practice is to foster an inclusive environment.
In an inclusive environment, managers welcome the many differences that distinguish their employees, and they leverage those differences to define new goals, improve processes, and boost team productivity. Companies that cultivate an inclusive environment thus promote equal opportunity—while also valuing differences as much as they do similarities.
As employees in inclusive organizations see their unique characteristics generating positive business results, they feel valued precisely for what makes them special. As a result, their commitment to their jobs—and the company—grows.
Fostering an inclusive environment isn't easy, owing to two existing diversity approaches that get in the way. Think of these approaches as "assimilation" and "differentiation."
Assimilation
In organizations that approach diversity through assimilation, people stress the fact that "we're all the same." Assimilation promotes fair hiring, as managers strive to recruit diverse employees.
But this approach also has a major disadvantage: it encourages everyone to adhere to the corporate culture and codes of conduct defining how to look, act, and get ahead. This expectation of uniform behavior puts pressure on employees to downplay differences among themselves— which can carry a high price for their company. Here's an example:
Wu, a Chinese man who works in FreiCo's advertising department, believes that FreiCo's advertising strategy isn't appropriate for the Chinese marketplace. But he hesitates to cite his personal knowledge of Chinese culture in order to defend his opinion. Why? He fears that others will see him as importing inappropriate attitudes into an organization that prides itself on "sameness" and blindness to cultural differences. As a result, FreiCo never hears—or profits from—Wu's well-informed ideas.
Differentiation
In organizations that take a differentiation approach to diversity, people stress the fact that "we celebrate differences." Differentiation enables companies to expand into new and existing markets by matching diverse employees to niche customer segments distinguished by gender, race, age, ethnicity,socioeconomic status, and other defining characteristics.
However, differentiation also has an important downside: employees can feel they're being pigeonholed or exploited as tokens. They may also feel excluded from opportunities lying beyond the niche into which they've been slotted. Equally problematic, their ideas don't always get integrated into their company's mainstream work. Consider this illustration:
BestBank, a U.S. investment services company, aggressively expands into several Asian countries. To ensure that managers in the new offices have credibility with local customers and knowledge of local markets, BestBank hires Asians who live locally to manage its foreign offices. The new businesses prosper.
Yet BestBank as a whole never profits as much as it should have from this approach.
Why? The bank's country teams all operate as spin-off companies, so no one in the home office can discern what makes the teams so successful. For instance, which investment banking practices would prove profitable only in particular cultures?
Because it followed a differentiated diversity strategy, BestBank won't learn from the country teams' best practices—and can't put these practices to use in the larger organization. Moreover, BestBank has made itself vulnerable: if numerous managers from
the Chinese team, for example, were to leave the company, BestBank would not know which skills to seek in successor managers. Thus the company might have difficulty recreating its previous performance in that office.
Inclusion: a third way
Because both assimilation and differentiation contain serious drawbacks, companies would do better to adopt a third approach that transcends the two existing ways. Many diversity experts think of this approach as "inclusion."
In a company that fosters inclusion, employees' diverse perspectives are incorporated into the way business is conducted—changing things for the better. Here's one illustration:
Harmon & Hays, a small public-interest law firm based in Los Angeles, had an all-white legal staff that served an exclusively white female clientele. In light of the firm's mandate to advocate on behalf of all women, the attorneys were troubled by this homogeneity. To correct the situation, the firm hired Soledad, a Hispanic attorney.
Soledad brought in clients from her own community, demonstrating Harmon & Hays's commitment to serving all women. But even more valuable, she offered new ideas about which kinds of cases the firm should take on. For example, she suggested pursuing precedent-setting litigation that challenges English-speaking-only policies.
The firm had previously ignored such policies because they didn't fall under the purview of their traditional affirmative-action work. Soledad helped her colleagues see the link between English-only policies and employment issues for large groups of women—such as recent immigrants—clients the company had earlier ignored.
Soledad thus expanded notions of what constituted "relevant" issues for the firm. She enhanced not only the quality of Harmon & Hays's work but its ability to achieve its mission.

Key Idea: Craft a culture of inclusion
One way to create a culture of inclusion is to foster open discussion of cultural
backgrounds.
For instance, a food company's chemistry department has employees from
numerous different cultures. The department manager routinely expresses interest in the background of individual employees and engages them in conversation about their experiences.
Li-Shen Chang, a Chinese chemist, is inspired to draw on his familiarity with
Chinese cooking—not his scientific expertise—to solve a soup-flavoring problem that has been frustrating the department.
In an inclusive environment, managers demonstrate their belief that good ideas can come from anyone.
For example, at TopCo, Janice has decided to launch a series of weekly planning
breakfasts open to people from all hierarchical levels in the engineering
department.
With this move, she is sending the message to her subordinates that she values
their ideas—regardless of their differences or position in the department.
In inclusive, diverse workplaces, people share a broader range of ideas and feelings more frequently than they do in homogenous organizations. Not surprisingly, this variety can spark tensions, and people may put forth perspectives that clash.
To ensure that employees continue to feel safe in expressing themselves, set a tone of honest discourse.
For example, during one of the breakfast meetings, Janice observes that LaNita
and Hank have opposing views on the department's proposed project plan. Janice responds to this situation by saying, "LaNita and Hank, you really seem to disagree about the direction our next project should take. Can you each say more about what's causing the intensity of your disagreement? And would you each describe your line of thinking in more detail, so we can agree on how to move forward?"
In this situation, Janice diffused a potentially explosive disagreement between two employees by acknowledging the tensions and resolving them swiftly and
sensitively.
How can you craft a culture of inclusion in your organization?
Key Idea: Link diversity to business goals
To extract maximum value from your diverse team, you need to enable every employee to perform to his or her full potential. That may require you to clarify the link between diversity and business goals, expand your definition of "diversity," and challenge damaging beliefs about differences.
For instance, do you envision improving sales among existing customers?
Expanding into new markets?
Now determine how diversity can help your team achieve those goals.
Articulate your thoughts to your group. At one company, a product development manager told his employees, "Our goals include serving soon-to-be-retired individuals and womenowned start-ups. I need you to draw on your personal experiences as representatives of these groups to generate ideas for services that may appeal to them."
Don't assume that each employee knows how his or her unique talents can help bring about success. Ensure that your staff understand the organization's goals, and then discuss how each person can contribute to the achievement of those objectives.
By calling attention to differences among your subordinates and showing how this diversity can help the company reach strategic goals, you send the message that you value each employee's contributions. Equally important, you give every subordinate an opportunity to generate valuable business results.
Diversity is not just a good idea; it's good business.
Leadership Insight: Tomorrow's leaders
Some of the pitfalls that we have found in organizations when they set out to develop their current and future leadership are that, number one; they rely on mental maps that really speak to yesterday’s business model and not tomorrow’s.
And I think that’s perhaps the most dangerous one. So we think about spotting people, cultivating people, nurturing people, developing people, promoting people who look and think and talk much the same that we do, as the current leadership is. And I think that’s really dangerous.
It chokes off any sense of vitality, any sense of difference or diversity inside of an organization. So I think one of the things that organizations need to do is to be aware that leaders can emerge from a variety of sources, from a variety of mindsets, and a variety of perspectives.
And so not only is that important from an organizational perspective, it’s important from individual leaders’ perspectives when they are thinking about their own team, their own people. There could very well be people on your team who might think very differently from how you think.
And so we need to open our minds up a little bit and understand where business is going, understand that our customer’s expectations are changing. So therefore, we need to cast a much, much broader net in terms of what our prospective leadership pipeline might look like.
It’s important to be aware of organizational biases when identifying and cultivating new leaders.
Expand your diversity definition
We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.
–Tim Berners-Lee
Envision diversity initiatives as encompassing all employees—not just members of minority groups.
For example, suppose you're a manager working in the Northeast region of the United States.
If your goal is to assemble a team representing a wide range of ethnicities, genders, ages, and abilities, don't ignore 45-year-old white males. Omitting them from the team would be just as exclusionary as leaving out representatives from minority groups. Moreover, like any other demographic category, 45-year-old white males constitute a potentially profitable market.
Indeed, before implementing any diversity effort, ask yourself a key question: "Will this initiative contribute to everyone's success in my team? Or, will it produce an advantage for only one or certain groups?" The most valuable diversity initiatives benefit everyone.
For instance, assembling a task force to explore ways for a minority ethnic group to advance more easily in your unit ultimately helps everyone. Why? Generally, the more diverse the unit's leadership ranks become, the more creative ideas they will generate for improving processes or better serving customers. The more creatively your unit operates, the more successful it becomes—which can lead to rewards for everyone.
Expose and challenge exclusionary beliefs
If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe
for diversity.
–John F. Kennedy
Beliefs about the personal qualities required to get ahead in your company can unwittingly bar certain groups from opportunities to be hired and to give their best on the job. By exposing and challenging these beliefs, you remove those obstacles so that your company can extract more value from differences.
To illustrate, at InfoTech, which employs mostly men, one manager cited "ability to work with people" and "compassion" as prerequisites for promotion to leadership positions. But then he admitted, "That's the official story. In truth, it's aggressiveness that really gets people hired and promoted here. And most women just don't have that trait."
At InfoTech, the belief that women can't be "aggressive" blocks qualified female employees from being hired and advancing to leadership positions.
To hire and promote more women—and thereby gain the benefits that diversity offers—managers at InfoTech would need to first reexamine their actual criteria for promotion, asking "Do aggressive leaders truly get better results than compassionate ones?" They would also benefit from challenging their beliefs about women, asking, "Are most women really incapable of being
aggressive when the need arises?"
In addition to the above suggestions, addressing the unique challenges of recruiting diverse employees can help you tap diversity's power.
Unique challenges
Many managers encounter frustrating obstacles in trying to recruit a diverse team. For example:
• "I've looked for diverse job candidates, but I just can't find many in this area."
• "The HR department found diverse candidates for a position, but I wasn't confident that they were the best qualified for the job. I don't want to hire diverse team members just for the sake of diversity."
• "Though we have diversity in our hourly-paid workforce, there's little of it in the middle and senior management ranks. Qualified diverse candidates are shying away from our company because of this."
How to surmount these challenges? You may need to stretch beyond your usual recruiting tactics in order to find diverse, qualified candidates and persuade them to join your team. The following ideas can help.
Expand your recruiting strategies
If you're having trouble recruiting additional diverse team members, consider using multicultural marketing approaches to identify the media through which people from different cultural groups get their information.
Some examples of media outlets could be:
• Ethnic radio and TV stations
• Community newspapers
• Trade journals
• The Internet
Once you've identified each group's preferred media, advertise job openings in those media for each group you're targeting.
Also, join forces with organizations that service the social, civic, religious, and educational needs of the groups whose representation you're seeking to improve in your team.
For instance, suppose you want to recruit additional people of color in your department.
You discover that a local community center runs a weekend program for young people of color on how to plan their careers. You invite one of your direct reports to give a short presentation on career management to attendees at the program. The payoff? You get your company's name out to the local community, and you identify possible future hires for your department.
Seek assistance from within your company
Your company's current employees can also help. Individuals within your organization that represent groups you're interested in recruiting may know qualified individuals who fit your desired profile. Suggest that your organization create an employee referral bonus program, whereby
employees would get rewarded for finding qualified diverse job candidates, if such a program does not already exist.
Your organization may also benefit from the power of employee affinity groups. Suggest to your HR department or senior leadership that members of diverse groups throughout your organization form groups to "sell" your company to potential job candidates.
For example, an indigenous people's group could talk with candidates as well as community and educational groups about your organization, what it's like to work there, and how they've advanced in the company.
"Sell" your company
It's not enough to locate potential diverse new hires; you also have to persuade qualified candidates to work for you. The following techniques can help:
• Tout your company's progress in hiring for diversity. Even if the organization overall still has a way to go in its diversity efforts, point out to qualified candidates what you've achieved so far.
For example, "We've increased the percentage of women in middle and upper
management from 35 percent to 45 percent over the past two years. We know we need to do more, but we've made a good start and are working to correct things."
• Emphasize the advantages of working for your organization. If your department or company offers advantages over rival organizations, explain those advantages to diverse job candidates.
For instance, perhaps you foster employees' career development by offering them special "stretch" assignments that enable them to strengthen their skills. Or maybe you've defined job roles and work schedules in such a way that everyone in your department is able to balance his or her work and personal or family commitments.
Once you've recruited diverse employees, your work doesn't stop there. You also need to retain them.
Don't stop with recruiting
Recruiting the diverse employees you need to help your company stay competitive isn't enough.
You also have to keep them. Retention can be challenging. This is especially true if the diverse employees you've recruited don't feel welcome and appreciated. Recently recruited employees may also leave if they've come from other countries and have difficulty understanding your company's cultural standards.
To retain members of your diverse team, you may need to reexamine your human capital systems—including incentives, work/life programs, professional development initiatives, performance appraisals, and mentoring mechanisms.
Reexamine incentives
Start by taking a look at the incentives—financial and nonfinancial—you use to reward your team.
Ask yourself: "Do these incentives send the message that we value diversity in this group? Do they encourage people to learn about one another's differences and use them to improve business processes and achieve important goals? Are they valued by all members of my staff?"
For example, a weekend getaway for two as a reward for good performance may be ideal for some members of your staff. But it wouldn't be as useful for an employee with several children who may be reluctant to spend a weekend away from his kids—and who would have to take on the extra expense of hiring a babysitter.
Based on your answers to the above questions, consider how you might change your incentive systems to better retain your diverse team. If money is tight, think about nonfinancial or low-cost rewards—such as the opportunity to head up a major project, attend a conference, or participate in an in-house seminar of interest.
Tailor work/life programs
Offer a range of policies to suit the diversity of your employees' work/life needs.
For instance, Lourdes, a manager at Prime Co., knew that a disproportionate number of her company's employees in their 40s and 50s shouldered responsibility for their immediate family and their extended family. To save these employees from burnout, Lourdes began offering flextime and telecommuting for subordinates who had job responsibilities that could be carried out at any time and from any location.
In tailoring your work/life programs, make sure that one group's work/life needs don't overshadow another's.
For example, don't always depend on young, single employees to shoulder workloads of individuals who regularly leave early for family commitments.
Also, make sure that your approach to work/life integration matches what you told candidates during job interviews. Too many managers tout their company's commitment to work/life balance in order to win talented new employees—without taking into account that this commitment varies across departments. A newly hired employee accepts the job offer and then learns that, owing to the nature of their assignments, people in his department work longer hours than employees in most other departments.

Develop employees' professional skills
Help diverse subordinates use their unique experiences to hone their on-the-job skills and advance in their career.
To illustrate, suppose you discover that Victor, a devout Catholic in your unit, volunteers for fund-raising at his neighborhood church and manages several youth groups in his offhours.
Through talking with him about these civic commitments, you realize that Victor has acquired some valuable skills—namely, strategic planning, change management, negotiation, and financial savvy. These abilities are essential for an upcoming special project in your department.
You encourage Victor to extract lessons from his community work and apply them in "stretch" assignments on the job.
For example, you invite him to head up a task force charged with introducing a new customer service process to your team. This opportunity helps Victor further strengthen his change management skills. And it enables your department to improve its processes and enhance customer loyalty.
Customize performance appraisals
Customize developmental goals introduced through performance appraisals to each employee's unique circumstances.
For example, during Victor's next performance appraisal meeting, you invite him to sign up for an internal training course that helps new managers further strengthen their leadership skills.
Here's another example.
Suppose that Dianna, a new mother who works in your unit, has negotiated a reduced workweek (with corresponding reduction in pay) so she can spend more time with her infant son. When conducting your annual performance appraisal for Dianna, allow for her part-time status while evaluating her on-the-job results. That is, don't expect her to produce the same volume of work in a 32-hour week as a 40-hour-a-week employee in the same job would produce. Instead, focus the performance appraisal on how well she met the goals, deadlines, and quality requirements in her negotiated agreement.
Establish mentors
Identify mentors who can provide diverse employees with instruction, coaching, and long-term, close developmental support as they progress through their careers. Mentors can come from within your department or from outside sources, such as other teams in the organization or external professional associations. Mentors from outside your functional area may be able to offer
their protégés broader perspectives on the workings of the company.
Some employees may benefit from mentors who are similar in age or who come from the same ethnic group. Others may prefer mentors with a different perspective or background. Both have benefits. For example:
• Mentors with different backgrounds. A mentor who has a different background from his or her protégé can often help that person understand what it is like to be a member of the mentor's group.
For instance, consider a white male who is a senior executive at a manufacturing plant. He is mentoring a female African American middle manager who is struggling in her management of an assembly line composed primarily of white males. As her mentor, he may be able to help her deal with employees' resistance to her ideas by sharing some of his own experiences with leading change.
• Mentors with similar backgrounds. Matching mentors with protégés from the same groups can offer unique benefits as well, such as enabling protégés to feel a greater sense of camaraderie and support. If it's impossible to find the ideal match for a particular employee, try to identify mentors who understand and appreciate the unique career challenges faced by the particular employee in question, as well as his or her special contributions.
To illustrate, perhaps Jon, a white employee in the marketing group, would make an excellent mentor for Taja, your Pakistani-born employee. That's because Jon's sister-in-law, Mikela, was born to Pakistani immigrants. Over the years, Jon has watched as Mikela has encountered challenges but nevertheless advanced through her career as a product developer. Because Jon is familiar with Mikela's experiences, he can support Taja as she progresses along her professional path.
Changing human-capital systems to retain your diverse team can help you get the most value from the differences among your subordinates. Sharpening your understanding of the cultural diversity that characterizes today's globalized business world is also important.

Culture's powerful influence
In today's age of global business, you probably hear the word culture used often. But what is culture, exactly? A person's culture determines his or her:
• Beliefs—about how the world works and how people should interact
• Behaviors—including gestures, use of eye contact, facial expressions, and rituals for greeting
• Values—what's considered important, such as family or personal life, career, religion, and social responsibility. Culture can be defined not only at a national level but also at the regional, organizational, or group level.
For example, people living and working in the American Northeast and Southeast may have different beliefs, behaviors, and values (regional cultural differences). People in a large consumer-products corporation may have a very different culture from people who work for a small, not-for-profit entity (organizational cultural differences). And people who work in a marketing department may do business differently than those who work in the
information technology function (group cultural differences).
Given the increase in international business that many organizations are experiencing, this topic focuses primarily on national and regional cultural differences.

How culture gets expressed
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must
recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities.
–Margaret Mead
Culture influences virtually all aspects of business. For example, people from different cultures may carry out the following activities in very different ways:
• Negotiating
• Communicating about business and nonbusiness topics
• Building working relationships
• Resolving conflicts
• Defining work procedures and ethical behavior
• Making decisions
• Greeting one another
• Establishing deadlines and meeting times
• Dressing
• Entertaining and dining
• Delivering presentations
• Evaluating business ideas and proposals
• Setting business priorities
• Relating to authority figures
• Selling and marketing to customers
When people from different cultures do business together, misunderstandings can result.
For example, Malcolm, a manager at a New York firm, travels to Tokyo to negotiate a sales deal with a customer. That evening, he and several managers from the Tokyo firm meet for dinner. As cocktails are served, Malcolm begins discussing the deal's details. He doesn't realize that, in many Asian cultures, people often prefer to establish relationships through nonbusiness conversation first. The Tokyo team members exchange uncomfortable glances and remain quiet during the rest of the evening. Malcolm returns to New York with no deal in hand.
Strengthen your cultural intelligence
In order to appreciate the cultures of another nation, one needs to go there, know the people, and mingle with the culture of that country.
–David Rockefeller
Possibilities abound for misunderstandings based on cultural differences. How do you avoid business gaffes based on cultural misunderstandings? Strengthen your cultural intelligence (CI) —your ability to adapt to a new cultural setting, learn patterns of social interactions specific to that setting, and respond in ways considered appropriate by people from that culture.
By emulating others' cultural "rules" when interacting with them, you demonstrate your esteem for them and for how they conduct business in their own culture. They respond by becoming more trusting and open—essential ingredients in any business interaction.
To build your CI, you can read books and articles or view videos and DVDs about cultural differences, as well as attend events and activities specific to particular groups. You can also get help from a coach specializing in cultural diversity, or simply begin to foster relationships with people from groups that are different from yours. They can help you better understand and
navigate your way through their culture.

Key Idea: Components of cultural intelligence
In addition to educating yourself on other people's cultures, you can also master these three components of CI: 
Use your "Head" to observe and learn about others. Look for clues to a culture's shared understandings.
For example, suppose you're about to take part in a series of meetings with a
negotiating team from another country. During your early encounters with members of the team, observe their attitudes toward time. (Are they always punctual—or "fashionably" late?) Watch behavior regarding deadlines. (Do they stick to them rigidly—or treat them as "guidelines"?) Observe their use of language. (Do they bluntly say "No" to proposals they consider unacceptable—or merely smile and say they'll "get back to you" and then not respond?)
Use your "Body" to emulate others. Seventy percent of communication is through body language. Practice mirroring the customs and gestures of people from other cultures.
For example, do they greet one another with a handshake, or with a kiss to both cheeks? Do men never shake women's hands, and vice versa? While chatting, are they "up close and personal," or do they stand several feet apart? How much—if any—eye contact do they make? Under what circumstances do they smile? Bow?
Use your "Heart" to believe you can learn about others. Embrace the notion that you are capable of understanding people from other cultures. In the face of obstacles, setbacks, or outright failure, strive with even greater rigor to familiarize yourself with others' cultures and follow their norms when you're in their territory.
Do you have the "head," "body," and "heart" to learn about and communicate with others?
Concluding thoughts on cultural intelligence
Understanding a culture does not mean you must embrace all its beliefs and behaviors. Neither does it imply that you must change your values or indulge in a cultural practice that you disagree with. What it does mean is that you use your knowledge of others' culture to understand why they do business the way they do. This understanding can lead to more positive, productive relationships in the workplace and with your customers.
With the increased globalization of business—including offshoring, setting up operations in various countries, and establishing far-flung virtual teams—international cultural differences have presented managers with particularly daunting challenges. To successfully manage cultural diversity around the globe, managers must be especially savvy communicators.
Operate globally
In today's business world, most large organizations operate globally. They:
• Sell their products and services to customers from various countries.
• Employ individuals from different nationalities.
• Use suppliers from around the world.
• Compete against rivals coming from many points on the globe.
• Forge joint-venture partnerships with companies in other countries.
• Assemble virtual teams comprising employees from far-flung locations.
If your company operates in any of these ways, you can expect to routinely encounter and communicate with people with national cultures different from your own. For example, you may be asked to:
• Form a virtual team made up of employees from different countries and time zones, and lead the team from your home office or an overseas location.
• Visit a customer in another country and negotiate an important deal.
• Meet with potential vendors from different countries to discuss their services and select the right supplier for your firm.
• Travel to another country and meet with representatives from a joint-venture partner to discuss progress on a major project.
In all of these scenarios, you can't assume that you'll interact and communicate with people from other cultures the same way you do at home. Indeed, if you expect individuals from other countries to negotiate, discuss business, and resolve problems exactly as you do, you risk committing communication gaffes that can sour your business relationships and hurt your company's—and your—performance.
Key Idea: Avoid cross-cultural communication gaffes
Operating globally can benefit all the parties involved. But cross-border cultural differences can make communication difficult. How to avoid gaffes while communicating with people from other countries? The following ideas can help:
• Sharpen your awareness. Hone your awareness—and appreciation—of the vast differences in communication styles among national cultures by taking advantage of resources provided by your company or online, such as books and articles on the subject as well as experts.
• Use your "people skills." Draw on your "people skills" by observing others and adapting to their communication styles. Keep your awareness of national culture differences in mind while interacting with others. However, don't overgeneralize by assuming that two people from the same culture communicate in identical ways.
Look for each person's individual style as well.
• Get educated. Take advantage of any cross-cultural training and coaching provided by your company. If your organization doesn't provide such resources, consider obtaining them yourself through online programs or courses offered by local colleges and continuing education programs.
• Find "cultural mentors." Identify peer managers in your firm who you see as
particularly skilled at cross-border communication. Ask them what they do to
enhance their ability to communicate with people from other nations. Then practice applying their methods to your own cross-border dealings.
How to avoid gaffes while communicating with people from other countries? 
Here are some ideas that can help.
Confusion about language
Often, people from different countries use English to discuss business together. But because comprehension of English can vary greatly, misunderstandings may occur.
For example, Larry leads a virtual team charged with designing brochures for new products. One morning, he e-mails Maya, a newly hired freelance graphic artist based overseas. In his e-mail, he asks her when she'll have the mock-up ready to circulate among the team members.
By "mock-up," Larry is referring to a rough draft of the brochure, showing placement of text and photos. Maya understands "mock-up" to mean a more finished version of the brochure. So, she tells him she'll have it ready in two weeks. Larry thinks to himself, What? Two weeks to do a mock-up? Because Larry doesn't realize that he and Maya are defining "mock-up" differently, he becomes skeptical of Maya's abilities and starts micromanaging her. Eventually, their relationship sours, corroding the team's morale and productivity.
Special challenges of nonverbal communication
People from different countries use nonverbal signals—including gestures, silence, touch, eye contact, and facial expressions—to mean different things. If you don't understand the different meanings assigned to such signals, you may misread them in another person.
For instance, suppose you've been assigned to lead a project team for several months in another country where your company has set up a satellite office. Soon after you arrive at the new location, you meet with each team member individually to introduce yourself and discuss project plans. During these meetings, you notice that a number of the team members make very little eye contact with you. You don't realize that, in their country, looking an authority figure in the eye signifies lack of respect. So, you interpret their behavior incorrectly—concluding that they're trying to conceal something from you. The
project starts off unnecessarily on a note of mistrust.
The art of negotiation
Negotiation styles vary widely across cultures. In some countries, negotiators open talks by emphasizing the negative aspects of the bargaining so far; in others, the positive. Some believe that withholding information is power. Some consider it rude to say "No" outright. People may also have very different preferences for how to set the pace of discussions during a negotiation.
To illustrate, Reed, a manager for a company based in Los Angeles, meets with Khoa, a manager at a Hanoi-based supplier, to negotiate a potential contract. For Reed, negotiation is about pushing through a deal—period. When Reed decides that the discussion isn't moving forward as quickly as he thinks it should, he presents increasingly forceful arguments. Khoa, who typically first builds a relationship with his negotiation counterpart and then slowly enters into the bargaining, interprets Reed's behavior as disrespect. Their negotiation fizzles, and what could have been a mutually beneficial deal never comes to pass.
Misunderstandings about forms of agreement
What constitutes an agreement hinges tightly on cultural norms. For some cultures, a verbal agreement is sufficient for both parties to move ahead with implementing a deal. In others, bargainers require formal legal documents to consider an agreement sealed. Lack of understanding of these different norms can lead to painful misunderstandings and lost business.
Consider this example: you work for a small start-up that's developing a new technology.
You've met with several engineers and marketers from TechInc., a potential customer from another country, to gauge TechInc.'s interest in your product. At each meeting and during each phone call, you hear comments from the TechInc. representatives such as, "We're definitely on board, and we'll want to get the work done as quickly as possible.
We'll get the purchase order to you by the end of next week."
You assume that this verbal agreement means you'll actually receive the purchase order by the designated date. Mindful of TechInc.'s urgency about having the order filled, you contact a long-time supplier that sells the parts needed to fill the order, and you purchase the parts. But when the following week ends, you still haven't received the official order from TechInc. You phone Marlon, your contact from TechInc., to find out what's going on.
"Oh," he says. "Well, we need to have more internal discussion about whether we can move forward with this project. We'll send you the order if we want to proceed." You're forced to cancel the order you placed with the parts supplier—setting the stage for mistrust in a previously positive relationship.
Misunderstandings are all too common when managers are communicating internationally.
However, by employing strategies to avoid cross-cultural gaffes and understanding the four areas where misunderstandings are most likely to occur (language, nonverbal communication,negotiation, and forms of agreement), you can improve the odds of success in your international business dealings.
Steps for creating a diversity recruitment plan
1. Analyze the demographics of the diversity community.
Find out which geographic areas contain the highest concentrations of the diverse groups you want to recruit.
2. Research the competitive landscape.
Analyze what rival organizations are doing to recruit diverse talent and to position themselves as an employer of choice. Consider whether some of their recruitment strategies are worth adopting, and how you might improve on them to compete more effectively for talent.
3. Evaluate the media habits of diverse candidates.
Learn how members of different groups gather information and news. Examples include ethnic radio stations, TV programs, and newspapers; niche Web sites; ethnic trade journals and publications; and job boards' diversity sites.
4. Craft job advertisements that improve on competing organizations' recruitment efforts.
Complement your company's brand with a compelling message about how your organization values diversity and offers valuable opportunities for diverse candidates. Make sure your message about diversity is communicated just as clearly through ethnic media as it is through mainstream media. For example, if a job posting in a mainstream newspaper is larger and more eye-catching than one in an ethnic newspaper, ethnic readers will be skeptical about your commitment to hiring diverse candidates.
5. Purchase targeted media for your job advertisements based on your analysis of diverse candidates' media habits.
6. Leverage community and corporate outreach opportunities.
Join forces with organizations that service the social, civic, religious, and educational needs of the diverse groups you're seeking to recruit from. These opportunities may include sponsorships, celebrations, and special events attended by your targeted populations.
7. Once you've identified valued candidates, "sell" your company's commitment to diversity.
Tout your organization's progress in hiring for diversity. Also emphasize the advantages of working for your organization—including special assignments that enable employees to strengthen and broaden their skills, as well as any programs designed to improve work/life balance.
8. Augment job advertisements with rewards for members of your team who find qualified diverse job candidates and educate these candidates on the advantages of working for your organization.

Steps for resolving diversity-related conflicts
1. Notice that diversity-related tension has arisen.
Do you feel that someone you work with has shown prejudice toward you? Or has someone accused you of treating him or her in a prejudicial way? Identify where the tension or conflict is coming from.
2. Reflect on your higher-level goals.
Do you care most about being proved "innocent" of prejudice? About being proved "right" that you were indeed mistreated? Identify some higher-level professional goals that are more important to you than being proven innocent or right.
3. Connect with the other person. Ask questions to better understand his or her behavior and attitudes. Then share your own perspective.
4. Question your assumptions about the situation.
Ask yourself how your desire to be proven right about a perceived offense, or innocent of offending someone else, might have distorted your view of the situation. For example, if an employee from a minority group complained about something you said during his performance appraisal, did you conclude that he views you as racist and become defensive? What data did you use to arrive at your conclusion? Might your conclusion be incorrect? Determine how you might check the accuracy of your interpretation.
5. Shift your mind-set to open yourself to change.
Identify changes you could make to improve your workplace relationship with the other person, then implement those changes. For example, suppose you discover that an employee's curt behavior stems not from diversity-related tension with you, but from her worries about her increasing workload. In this case, perhaps you could coach her to help her improve her ability to delegate.
Steps for strengthening your cultural intelligence
1. Assess your current level of cultural intelligence.
Identify your strengths and weaknesses in order to establish a starting point for subsequent development efforts. A 360-degree feedback assessment of your past behavior in actual intercultural situations can help you identify strengths and weaknesses. You can also conduct a self-assessment based on your own awareness of your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Select training that focuses on your weaknesses.
3. Apply the training you've selected.
4. Organize your personal resources to support your chosen development approach.
For instance, if you're having difficulty coming up with extra time to take a needed class, consider how you might lighten your workload temporarily. Perhaps you could delegate some tasks or ask a peer manager to lend you one of her employees for a few hours each week to handle overflow.
5. Enter the cultural setting you need to master.
6. Reevaluate the effectiveness of your newly developed skills by obtaining feedback from colleagues on how you handled the encounter in the new cultural setting.
7. Decide whether you need additional training to further strengthen your cultural intelligence.
Tips for creating an inclusive workplace environment
• Identify and challenge any assumptions you have about people from certain groups and their work abilities or attitudes. Inaccurate assumptions—stereotypes and prejudice—will negatively affect the way you interact with these individuals.
• Communicate high expectations of performance for all workers. Never hesitate to address an employee's lagging performance because you fear being seen as prejudiced.
• Soon after hiring diverse employees, find out whether they will need some reasonable and fair accommodation. For example, do they have religious holidays and practices that require accommodations at certain times during the year?
• In providing examples to explain work assignments and concepts, draw from a variety of cultural reference points, not just your own experiences.
• Spend time getting to know everyone on your staff. Let them know that you care about them as human beings, not just as workers.
• Avoid telling jokes or making comments that reinforce stereotypes, and discourage others on your team from telling such jokes.
Adapted from Dr. Richard Fields, "How Managers Can Enhance Their Effectiveness by Creating and Sustaining an Inclusive Workplace Environment."
Tips for recruiting diverse employees
• Ask multicultural contacts with whom you regularly interact to recommend candidates.
• Tap into diversity-focused community events. For example, see if your company would be interested in serving as a sponsor for a local event that will likely be attended by members of diverse groups you wish to attract.
• Attend special interest conferences and job fairs held by groups representing professionals
of color, such as the National Black MBA Association.
• Use a wide range of multicultural marketing and recruitment sources, including local agencies, state and federal agencies, and independent search firms that specialize in recruiting specific populations.
• Recruit from colleges and universities with a high ratio of women, people of color, and other diverse groups. Participate in career-day activities and multicultural initiatives at such schools.
• Visit multicultural-oriented Web sites and diversity focused e-zines used by groups you're interested in recruiting to learn more about their career interests and to post job advertisements.
Adapted From Janine Fondon, "From Impression to Impact: Five Most Web-Inspiring Ways to Recruit and Retain Diverse Professionals and Wow Consumers and Communities of Color," Business World Index, December 6, 2006, UnityFirst.com.
Tips for maximizing the value of employee affinity groups
• Ask your human resources manager to consider creating employee affinity groups in your company. Define business priorities that such groups would support (for example, recruiting a more diverse workforce) and explain the importance of affinity groups for providing social support.
• Give HR ideas for establishing a consistent structure for all affinity groups. For example, the HR group could define the minimum number of meetings and broadly express expected outcomes.
• Point out to HR the value of requiring that all affinity group activities have a business outcome—for instance, professional development of members, recruitment of diverse job candidates, or marketing of your company's image to targeted consumers.
• Explain that human resources staff could work with each affinity group to determine metrics for assessing the value created by the group.
Adapted from "Powerful Partnerships: Maximizing Return on Investment with Affinity Groups," Diversity Trends LLC, 2001.
Tips for showing respect for people from another culture
• Through books, coaches, articles, DVDs, Web sites, and online or in-class training programs, familiarize yourself with the customs of the other culture before meeting with people from that culture.
• If you're not sure about appropriate dress, choose a traditional business suit or other conservative, professional clothing.
• Show individuals from the other culture your interest in learning about their lives. Ask appropriate questions, and listen to the answers.
• Let the people you're meeting with set the pace for introducing, discussing, and negotiating business issues.
• Adopt more formal behavior than you usually would; it will convey respect.
• Mirror as many of the other person's customs as possible. For example, greet people from the other culture in their language and follow rules about gift-giving and entertaining.
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